Helen

The town of Helen Ga. is a joke.  Maybe it used to be kinda cute but it has long since lost it's appeal (to me at least).  Traffic is terrible, it has gotten dirty, the paint on the buildings is faded, and the average clientele is, shall we say, not the beautiful people.



The view as you approach the finish line hill

But the surrounding countryside is still as pretty as it gets.  The trail system we raced on was devastated by a tornado a few years ago so the woods are thick, with not much of a view, but still, it's the mountains!

Time To Pedal

It had rained hard the Friday before our practice lap on Saturday.  Since the trail hasn't been very well maintained over the years it holds water in inopportune spots.  I had to walk a couple of short sections due to it being slick but fortunately the down hills weren't too bad.  The Kid didn't have any trouble and rode away from me easily.

What is it with these tall socks?

 

 

The Kid walks the creek crossing

 

Race day was bright and sunny, my class only had 6 in it.  I had to beat RJ to win the championship, which unless he had some trouble, didn't look too promising.  My race plan was to stay in my zones and just see what happened.  Well, it made for a pretty boring race.  RJ went out hard (as usual) and I ended up riding most of the 2 laps by myself.  He didn't have any trouble and beat me by a large margin.  I ended up second on the day and second in the series.

As I approached the finish line on my final lap I could hear all sorts of obnoxious heckling coming from the top of the hill.  It sounded like Big Jim and the rest of the crew had gotten into the beer cooler.  As Big Jim ran beside me hurling insults regarding my cycling abilities I got a happy feeling in my gut.  It was over!   Now it was time to celebrate.

Jim provides encouragement?

 

 

Yea, I only got second, but I had had a good time!  I can remember when just making two laps of Helen was beyond me.

 

 

Let's Get the Party Started

I grabbed a couple of beers and we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up for the awards banquet.  We thought we'd be sneaky and pour our beer in Styrofoam cups and take them in to sip on while they gave out awards.  Being dehydrated and hungry the stuff went right to my head.  I almost fell off the box when I went to get my plaque.  Causing the Lovely Wife to remark that maybe the beer wasn't such a good idea. 

 

Can you tell by the look on my face I just got scolded?

Hey, I didn't get an award last year and had to sit there while everybody else got one.  I think I deserved a little extra celebration.

 

 

 



 

Now this is what the beautiful people look like!

 

After all it's not really the destination that's important, it's the journey.