Wente Weekend Whatnots

so...

the results are here... at least for the crit. But, they are screwed up. They have a bunch of masters guys winning the junior 17/18 race. Good ego boost for the old dudes, I guess. Nothing up from the road race... but that's not really important... what is important is that Kelbster, Torey, Tapinator, and PtotheArker all won battles with the hills, heat, and wind... 3 demons that conspired to dnf over half of the p/1/2 field. The kidlets done good... they all finished. they all can be proud.

Speaking of demons... AWfoSho did battle with his own demons on Sunday.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to one or more terrifying events in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened... according to one publication in the know, anyway. Even though I teach in a fifth-grade classroom, which is practically a war zone, I've never even come close to seeing PTSD in real life... until Sunday.

The junior race was the first of several races that was halted for emergency vehicles... not sure one was really necessary, but I guess it is a parent's prerogative... and the kidlets got to sit next to flashing lights and sirens for, oh, about twenty minutes or so. Once things got all sorted out and racing resumed El Gigante continued his march to the finish with Specialized's Marcus Smith in tow, and the 17/18 crowd was left to sprint it out for the top spot in their race.

The finishes were kinda anti-climactic. Marcus made a gentleman's deal with El Gigante... "tow me to the line and I won't sprint." The kidlet was true to his word. The 17/18's finished in a lack-luster bunch kick (congrats to Lucas Lebow by the way). AWfoSho crossed the line third and promptly disappeared.

I found him fifteen minutes later in the back seat of the car in a cold sweat and trembling. The ambulance triggered some sort of recall and did a little number on his thinker. Literally took a few good firm slaps to the side of the face to bring him out of it...

Being the suck-it-up kinda guy I am, I forced (not really, because he knew I was right) AWfoSho to race the p/1/2 race later in the afternoon. If he didn't get right back on the horse it probably would never happen. Unfortunately he got to see the p/1/2 women try to decide who could leave the most skin on the pavement not once but twice, listen to everybody talk about crashing, and see ladies and gents walk around all mummified up in gauze and cotton for three hours before his race started. I was pretty close to packing it all in and taking him home. At one point he was fighting off tears... the kidlet loves bike racing, but knows what it takes to be at the sharp end of a crit in the final laps. he was worrying that he didn't have it anymore. Finally settled on putting a radio in his ear so I could talk him thru the prosey event... you know, keep it light, offer encouragement, tell him to nut up... whatever it took.

And then the fun began... we joked our way thru pre-start nerves from 200 meters distant, I asked him to get Roman Kilun's autograph for me, as he was lined u next to him. We made up secret code words, just in case somebody was listening in. My call sign was big daddy, his hemophiliac (just because he didn't know what it meant). We poked an awful lot of fun at BPG just because they had like seventy-five guys in the race all miked-up and spotters stationed every twenty meters along the course. And AWfoSho rolled around at the back of the field. He was racing, but he wasn't really racing.

So, when the prime bell rang and the field was all together I mentioned that he could take his chica out to dinner with the twenty bucks... then, as an afterthought, I told him El Gigante volunteered to double it with his winnings from the junior race and he could take the girlfriend out to a movie as well.

When the field came into sight around the final corner there was AWfoSho in the right hand gutter, out of the saddle, going full-tilt. He'd come from the back to the front in a lap. The cool thing was that in the left hand gutter was DHolla, out of the saddle going full-tilt in his stars and stripes skin suit. Drag race... it's not often that somebody beats DHolla in a drag race, but on this occasion, AWfoSho took the twenty bucks while El Gigante was yelling at me that I had to match the $20... he wasn't paying for it.

Just a small positve... but it was enough. AWfoSho stayed at the front and banged elbows and shoulders with the big dawgs for the final laps of the race before throwing out the anchor and drifting to the back. baby-steps... He'll be back. It's in his blood.

by the way... got a text message this morning. "Transfer the $40 into my bank account, please" I did so with a smile on my face...