yard sale race (GAP #1)

This weekend was the first race in the GAP series: the Yard Sale race at Heritage Park near Athens, GA. I had planned on racing this, but tried to do the responsible thing since my cash flow is low and sat this one out, instead cheering on my friends out there and hopefully taking some good pics with the old 35mm camera (fingers crossed!) In general the day was great with gorgeous blue skies and plenty of sunshine. Josh had a great ride to start off the season, except for getting a flat on the second lap. He ended up finishing 11th out of 19 in his sport group, 7 minutes behind the leader. Lots of folks from my BOD group came out too. Tracey won her first race in the sport division (yeah!!) and her soon-to-be-hubby Brandon got 5th in his.

The day ended on a down note though. My AR friend Belinda ("Kiwi") came out to race with me in the beginner women division (oops, sorry!). She went ahead and rode because she rocks. Well, early on in the second lap she took a spill (I still don't know the details) and limped out a good bit later with her arm bandaged in a bloody bandana. (thanks to Zach ?! for showing great sportsmanship, dropping out of the race to help her!). Turns out when falling, Kiwi impaled her arm on a rather large stick.... all the way to the bone. After a trip to the hospital, 8 staples, 4 stitches, and lots of pain meds later, she seems to be doing well enough considering. Thankfully there were no broken bones. If she wasn't wearing a helmet, the paramedics said it would not have been good.

Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute.