Leadville Silver Rush 50

Well the Leadville Silver Rush 50 mile mountain bike race was held in Leadville on July 15th, 2006. April (GF) aqnd I packed up and headed to the high country to see what Leadville would have in store. Getting there Friday evening town seemed to be booming and cars with bikes were lining the streets.
At 9am off coes the shotgun and up we racers go up the not-so-famous hill climb start. Out of breath in the first 50 feet, oh yes, it is all coming back to me now. It was also very hot up there at the 10,200 ft mark leaving no room for error. The race is going well and then at like mile 18ish I look to my left seeing 30+ racers off course, paralleling the correct course, yet riding a much easier section...There I am pushing as I watch the guys I am racing go by spinning by. I try to get the lead guy taking everyone off course to turn but he refuses as he and I go from discussing to cussing eachother in the heat of the day. I start to cool off but am a little sad at my fellow racer's actions. I did try to be nice but it just didn't happen. I get my id back as I decide that at least by the race's end I did in fact earn my spot in the ranks by working a little harder and staying on course.
Fortunately the questionable rider whom I made friends with earlier blew up severley so no need to loose sleep over the matter (I guess Karma really does bite you in the @$$ at times, glad I was good for the most part...hope I was good for the most part! lol). Anyhoo, the race goes on and I do feel better as it goes. People are loostening up, helping other racers with flatting or whatever, quite a welcome site from before. The clouds start to build but left a perfect circle around the sun all day long so as to make sure we got no relief from the large yellow disk in the sky. Thirteen miles later I am at the finish in 5:15, about 15 minutes off of last year yet this finish felt great and I felt strong. All in all it turned into a great day in the high country and I had worked enough for 32nd over all and 2nd in the SS catigory. Charlie Hays came in second overall, 1st place SS, 30 places before me and like an hour and change ahead of me. Charlie is an amazing rider, as is Rick Blaser, a 3rd time champion of the event. So I feel good I am so close to other SSers out there and can't wait to keep riding my bike and finding out more of Charlie's/Rick's secrets along the way.
Hope you all had as great of weekend as April and I, and of course I had to come and report my results to the stone, I wore my old school blue and white jersey and smiled 99% of the way!
Cheers,
miSSionary