. If you haven't met the Hightower's, you should. Aaron & family are just great people to hang with and I appreciate them opening their land up to the race. There's lots or prep work for a race; before, during & after it's over. Thanks guys for all your efforts. on to the report from the 500's:
We were missing a few familiar faces but the day was glorious and weather was spot on. Board drops and I got a good start 3rd into the sticks. With all the B riders in the class, I knew it would get interesting real quick. Wanted to stop @ Carl's Diner for breakfast but Carl was only serving slick, wet, downhill rock boulders and kind of lost my appetite after that. With vulture's behind me picking flesh off my rear, hit "hard line in another rock creek section and simply just dumped it...bye bye two-thirds of the 500's. At that point the race was basically over but labored on since I probably wasn't going to catch those guys. Never really did get comfortable and in the "groove" until later on in the race kind of playing it safe after the last two race seat ejections. However by then it was race-cruise mode sucking the life out of the camel-bak trying not to eat the Ozarks finest geographical displays. Final lap I did stop and talk to a oak tree briefly but it was a one-sided conversation as oaks have no personality at all. They rarely speak and just stare at you with that oak look when running into one. Finished a dismal 8th.
Thanks again to the Hightowers' and Dan's crew for the event. Good Stuff! The shirts are sweet!
Gcat