The Firecracker 50

Damn. Well kids, no PR for this go-'round. Chemistry Lesson 1. Limiting reactant. The limiting reagent, also known as the "limiting reactant", is the chemical that determines how far the reaction will go before the chemical in question gets "used up", causing the reaction to stop and causing the cyclist competing in the Firecracker 50 to go berserk (complete with expletives that'll cause a Nun to blush) on an inanimate object. The limiting reactant in this process was the inner-tube(s). 3 flats(solid) + 2 tubes(solid) yields 1 disappointed hominid(solid). In defense to my flats, I must say it was while leading a downhill charge over some gnarly treeroot, festooned with babyhead rocks on a particularly troughed out chute. After walking some miles to and from aid stations due to my quandary -truth be told- it added another hour to my last year's, equally non-stellar time. Yikes.
Still had fun though. 6.5h compared to last year's 5.5h. People said I should consider tubeless (maybe you should consider "shutting yo mouth sucka!").
Had fun hanging out with Kenny and spending some time in his quality VW microbus with westfalia camper mods nonetheless. Sweet!
It's quite the thrill being part of the 4th of July parade entourage! We lead the parade with the classic, exotic hot rods and other related parade items following us. Little kids line up both sides of the street with their hands outstretched to middle-five all the waves that roll down the parade route/main street. I musta slapped an elementary school's worth of tiny palms that morning. It was cool. What followed was the aforementioned chemistry lesson.
Our calves were marked by our wave (where as a personal touch, the gal personalized our wave with a picture-I requested the skull ((foreshadowing?))).
Here's my wave: 14 (40-49 Men's Sport).

Here's Kenny's wave: 13 (30-39 Men's Sport).

Team Yeti. Turquoise is Yeti's color for their high-end bikes. Kenny's sporting the dually, whereas I have the red (non, highend bike) hardtail.

Here are the crowds setting up. It's first come, first serve for curbside squatters.

The Breckenridge Village for apres-race tom foolery.

For 2010, I'm going to miss this quality race because Team M's going to Boston, Ma and Maine to soak up Acadia NP (and other things NorEasterly).