Victory! (Sorta)

In the registration line this morning for the Race at the Reactor, I heard Steve Levine deliver the good news to a gray brother ahead of me. "If we get enough guys, we'll have a 45-and-over category."

 The first wave of racers prepare to go off at yesterday' Race at the Reactor.

After last month's Huck-A-Buck race at Lake Crabtree, part of this summer's five-part 2008 Leith BMW Triangle MTB Race Series, I wrote a column bemoaning the fact that there was no category for riders 45-and-up, that we had to race with the 35-and-up crowd. This wasn't a calculated slight, Chris Pappas with race sponsor Happy Fun Racing assured. It's just a matter of having enough racers to justify a category.

So when the Sport 35-plus category cued up at 10:30, the starter asked everyone who was 45 or older to raise their hand. There were 13 of us, more than enough to justify our own category.

Fast forward to the finish and that old adage, be careful what you wish for: I may well have finished last among among my older piers. I say "may well have" because I didn't stick around long enough afterward to find out — the pain in my left hand (now radiating up my arm) demanded an appointment with the two Is, ice and ibuprofen.

I'll report those results when they become available later in the week. I'll also report more on the race in general, turnout for which was very strong, especially in the kids categories.

And I picked up some good tidbits on the mountain biking scene. I 'll parcel those out through the week as well.