Mt Biking, Part Deux

Mike and I have been kicking around volunteering for Ironman Wisconsin this year, since we are not ready to do an actual Ironman ourselves. For days we have been weighing what a good thing to do as a volunteer would be, what would be a time commitment we could live with, what we are qualified to help with, etc, etc, etc. We finally decided that we were game for about anything up to Transition 2, but would prefer to work our way through the earlier opportunities if possible. This morning, the volunteer spots opened up and Mike was in charge of getting us registered. We are all signed up to do body marking with race numbers from 4:45-7 AM (OUCH! Thats early!!!), which will free us up for any other minor volunteer jobs as well as allow us to watch lots of the tri as it unfolds. Oh yeah - we will get a t-shirt too, which should definitely make Mike the Tshirt Whore do a cartwheel from sheer unadulterated joy. One the jobs we kicked around was stripping wetsuits after the swim. We didn't sign up for it because we got the body painter spots first, but I wonder if you get a special tee that says something like "I was a stripper at IMWI 07." Maybe we should find out and switch, that would be kind of funny........

Tonight Mike and I did our second Velo Club Beginners MTB ride. First we had to make an emergency pit stop at the bike shop because Mike went to prep his bike and discovered his tire was flat. When he tried to change the tube, he discovered that the valve stems were not the right ones and would not fit through the hole in the rim. The bike shop boys did us up right and we got ourselves together int time to meet the group at Sunnyside.
I have to say I had myself pretty wound up by the time we started the ride. After last week, i was not looking forward to taking my life in my hands again and I was very nervous about doing the single tracks again in Rockport. We had a larger group tonight including a 9 year old boy who was pretty much fearless. No way was I going to let a kid kick my ass without putting up a good fight so that was the motivation I needed to get moving.
We did a lot of the same trails so even though I had no idea where I was most of the time, certain things looked familiar to me from last time - like the trees that bit me last week or any of the numerous places I hit the dirt, or a tree, or a rock, or a sharp turn, or a root...... (you get the picture). I would call the night a success because:
- I was not the least experienced person on the ride (there was someone else there that was newer than I)
- The only person I told to shut up and leave me alone was Mike, and he's tough so I know he can take it
- I only fell off my bike 3 times, one of which was over a log hop which I had never tried before.
- I was able to maneuver most of the single tracks tonight
- I only shrieked out loud once, down roller coaster hill.
- I only said the F word out loud once, and i think the kid was out of earshot when I did. (In my defense, it was on a rather scary hill)
- I have no tree bites to speak of, I only bled a little bit from one knee, and none of the bruises hurt yet.
We saw a few new spot tonight too. Janet had a quirky name for all kinds of different parts of the park, and there is a story behind them all. Tonight we didn't do onion run, but we did visit "Porno Point" which is a ridge where a pile of girly magazines was once discovered by some of the MTB riders, hence the name I guess. Funny.
Next time, I will be working on cornering better and trying to keep my brakes from sparking a forest fire. I can't believe I just said "next time"............. guess I'm hooked.