I had registered for all races, 5/10/20 and 40K, but wound up doing only the 5 and 10... and yes, I was the only trike! Being March, and with the crappy weather the last couple of months, I was only hoping to hold 18+mph for any of the races.
Good to meet and goof around with all the 'benters, although there weren't that many of us, due to various individual circumstances. I had been looking forward to competing against Steven Jackson on his 700, but he pulled out.
Also nice of Mike Librik to come up with Rebecca, to cook burgers and have a place to hang out - wish we would have had more takers!
My 5K almost didn't happen... I was last on the start list, and with several more to go in front of me, I went to the bathroom... when I got back, everyone else had already gone! Fortunately, I was next, and had 30 seconds to spare before my start time... but that didn't give me time to start my Strava tracker, dangit... Plus, we had all waited at least 30-40 minutes for all the DF riders to launch ahead of us, so we weren't exactly freshly warmed up.
That short incline on the west side was also into the wind, so my speed dropped to 16mph in that section - but I finished in under 9 minutes, for a 21.0 average...
That was about 9:45AM... and then they said that the 10K wasn't going to start until 11AM... so there was a lot of just hanging out -- thanks again to Easy Street!
The 10K was about the same experience -- wait 30+ minutes for the DFs to go, then the recumbents. This time, I stayed at the start! They let JRob go, then they held me for 2 minutes because Tim Oudjesky wasn't there for his time slot. By this time, the sun had come out, and the wind had died down a LITTLE bit... I was able to stay above 16mph on the westside climb, this time, and held ~22-24mph most of the way around -- With about two miles to go, I spotted JRob! So, the chase was on, and I caught him with about 1/2 mile to go -- he sped up to pace me, but couldn't hold it, and I finished about 10 seconds ahead of him, with a 17:20, for a ~21.5mph average.
As soon as I got back to the start, they were announcing the 20K!!!! I said, "Oh, hell, noo...." and bagged it, and skipped the Sunday 40K as well, mostly due to the damp/drizzle conditions and the hour-long drive over there.
As JRob said, they had mis-entered my 10K time, and even when "corrected" had me at 15:50 -- which means beating both Reever and Steven, which I KNOW didn't happen.... Probably because there were rider gaps on the spreadsheet. So, if they announced my speed as ~23.5 mph, they LIED...
A reasonably good time, and the overall atmosphere was much friendlier towards the 'bents this year, although they had us all starting last for all TTs.
Thanks, to all!
Paul