Man, I must be cursed when it comes to picking races to compete in. My first race of 2006 was rescheduled
just weeks before the original event date; Odyssey had trouble with the "permitting" so they emailed all the teams with a new race date just a few weeks beforehand. Needless to say, many were not pleased and I know several teams couldn't or didn't want to race on the new date. I was unhappy with the date change, but Pam and Mike talked me into sticking with the race and
we went out and had a good time anyway.
We were pumped about a
36-hour race in late June up in Maine, but the race cancelled due to the race directors pursuing other options. The curse strikes again.
So, it boils down to the fact that I haven't competed in an actual race since February -- too busy planning and organizing and doing other things -- but when
the Raid The North opportunity came along I jumped on it. I've wanted to race up in Canada for some time and this 36-hour race looked like the only ticket in town for July. Well . . . this weekend we learned that the race was cancelled and they messed up our registration (but we're getting our money back . . . the Raid the North folks still seem like good guys and they're extending a killer discount for us to their big 5 day race). The point is, no race for me in July.
The curse again?Fortunately, there is a glimmer of hope that I can race at the
Odyssey 24-hour event over July 22 weekend. I think we can keep our arrangement with Axis Gear to race as
HRAdventure/Axis Gear and the next trick is reworking teammate schedules to race on a different July weekend than we had planned.
I know the
Big Head Crew from Virginia Beach are racing the Odyssey event, and I suspect we may see some other familiar Virginia faces at that race. Who knows, maybe this is the
lemonade to be made from the Raid the North cancellation
lemons. I really need to get some long training days in between now and
the Moab race, so a 24-hour in the Shenandoahs fits the bill nicely. Training by racing is my preference over me packing up all my gear and disappearing for a weekend of solo training in the mountains . . .