A Good Weekend

Back from Mountain Mayhem - with a dry sun burned face that comes as a bit of a surprise after the filthy weather that prevailed for most of the weekend. It all kicked off Friday evening with a toast to Jenn as she rolled across the start of GDR and an ocean away. It was appropriate somehow that we were all together in the familiar setting of the field at Mayhem, but funny how everyone seemed to have something in their eye just after raising a glass... And there was much to make us think us of Jenn - the teeming rain that I heard on the tent in the middle of the night that would make her smile and pedal that tiny bit harder. Whenever anyone showed signs of weakness in the face of mud that turned to concrete and huge chunks of course that had to be walked we consoled ourselves that at least it wasn't at altitude and there wasn't snow and bears. Good stuff happened too - My Knees Hurt, the singlespeedy team Mr Minx subbed into, won the vets category, Lorraine rode an amazingly consistent race to come sixth in solo women, and I managed to catch up with sometime Minx blogger Fi to give her big hugs after she came in third.

Early copies of The Ride, had been rushed to its creators who were also racing. Simply put, it's a collection of words and pictures about riding bikes but it is also a thing of great beauty and there was much sighing and ohhh-ing and ahhh-ing as we peered over each other's shoulders between laps and tea-making duties to get a look. Seriously - it's so lovely you never want to reach the end. Get yours NOW because it is a limited print run.

But page turning. racing and ice cream eating over, our thoughts turned again to Jenn. We tried to hook up to the blog via a bad mobile connection but to no avail, so it was into the door, to the computer.... and ohmigod...a story about a guy and a bear... but scroll, scroll, scroll, down, down, down - and there it is! A picture of Jenn, who they say is scorching and ahead of the pace for the single speed and women's records. Try to contain self because it's day three and this race is so hard people have already dropped out. But quietly saying, "That's our girl."

Damp key board not pictured.


Minx