Acme Shorty #3

[Mark Gibson]

Ding ding, round 3. The temps had picked up a little, and the wind had died down a little too, so conditions were just about perfect. The middle school kids were out there in force this week. So awesome to see those young rippers. The "A" field was not quite as big as last week, but there was still a good turn out of regulars and High School crushers. As we lined up at the start, we all did our best to crowd out Phil Mooney and force him to the back of the line, but he's a sneaky one and somehow wiggled his way in to the front.

I got a good start, and went in ahead at the hole shot and down the singletrack. Phil had got tangled up with someone at the start, and was a few places back, but soon after hitting the pavement climb I heard the buzz of his tires coming up fast behind, and he blew by me taking the lead at the top of the pavement. He went pretty hard for the first few laps, opening up a big lead which I had no chance of making up. For the first lap, team mate Mark Ingwersen, as well as Wilson Perry and a couple other really fast High School racers were right behind me. They have the NorCal champs coming up this weekend and so this race is the perfect amount of intensity for them a few days before the race. I was able to keep my pace up on the 2nd lap, splitting in the same time as on my 1st lap, and that was enough to gap Wilson and Mark. From that point on it was just trying to maintain a good pace, which I did for the first 5 laps before slacking off a bit on the final lap. I came in 2nd, around 30 seconds behind Phil, and around 45 seconds ahead of Wilson and Mark who were 3rd and 4th, respectively.
I was pleased that my time of 21:46 was a little quicker than last week.

Big thanks to Jim and everyone who helps in organizing these local races taking place in our back yard! There's nothing quite like short track racing. I'm looking forward to the next one.