A couple weeks before the High Desert Classic, Mike started hinting that he knew some runners in case there were any cyclists about in need of team formation. True to form, I waffled over whether to strain my limited resources to do the race until a few days before. By which time the good runners were all taken, and I was begging around the pool Thursday night before Peter E. agreed to run for me.

Picked him up and drove down to the Pocatello Sandpiper early Saturday morning, to register and wait around with the various Poky-IF people of my acquaintance like Bad Bob, Brian, Dave, Mike, Peter J, Rob, and others. People to watch included Peter J, who had snagged the fast runner Mike knew, and Dave who had a new-to-him funny TT bike and looked pretty excited. I waited until the runners had started, then went over to the fairgrounds / transition area.

The weather was not quite so cold as the previous year, and it didn't even seem to be threatening any form of precipitation in the near future. Still, it was a mite chilly and breezy, so I settled on arm warmers and full-finger gloves in addition to the requisite shorts and jersey. Installed the usual aero toys on Eddy, clip-on bars and the rear disc. A tri-spoke sure would be nice, but I wasn't going to make the mistake of ordering one while unemployed this year.

Then the usual slow ride around waiting for the runners to come in. The fast 5k guys show up, followed by the slow 5k guys. And then the fast 10k guys, including Peter J's runner, Glen, and Dave's runner. A few more minutes. Then Peter E, limping along to a 44'47", still way faster than I would have gone I'm sure.

Clearly I had my work cut out for me. A long chase ensued, fighting a head/crosswind on the north leg and then east to the turnaround, where I began to see people ahead of me. Like Dave, Rob, and Peter. I appeared to be gaining on them, but was still several minutes out of the turnaound when Dave came back by me.

The turnaround. Whew. A very nice tailwind back to the west, but everyone else was enjoying it as well. Turned the corner back to the south, and finally started catching people. But how could there still be a headwind? That wasn't very fun. Caught Peter J, erasing his ringer-runner advantage. Couldn't quite catch Rob and Dave though by the time I got back to the fairgrounds. Oh well.

Time to go back to the Piper for the spaghetti buffet. Mmmm. Waiting for results. They arrive. I had a 1:11' for the 30 miles, Dave had a 1:07", Rob had around a 1:11" as well. See official results at the Outdoor Program page.

later,
hah