Baketball and the Ididaride

This week was another full of Basketball games. Derek is now just over 6'5" and he is getting used to his height; more rebounds, blocked shots and baskets made. They won one of the three games to take their record to 12 wins and 3 losses. They only have 2 more games this season. Notice his hand size on the basketball in the picture.

Saturday the 19th was the Ididaride bicycle "race". I put it in quotes because technically they call it an endurance event but when you put 350 people at point A --- say GO --- and everyone heads to point B it is a race. They keep track of everybody at each checkpoint and tell you how many people have come through ahead of you.
We encountered HEAVY rain and 43 at the start and rain off and on with a high of 49 throughout the 50 miles of off road riding.

I rode the ride with 2 friends John and Tommy we finished 9th including the 3 guys that passed us while we were changing my flat tire. It was cold and wet as we traversed down trees and stream crossings not to mention many large 6"+ deep puddles.

Both John and Tommy had numb feet from the conditions ... mine were wet but the smart wool blend socks kept me reasonably warm. My rain jacket which got no workout on the cross country ride sure got it's workout Saturday.

Tommy is a very strong rider was there for a group endeavor so even though he could have come in first he rode with John and I often providing comic relief.
I was pleased to finish 9th I was hoping for a top 30 out of the 350 registered. There were some who came but did not ride due to the conditions and I did not wait around to see how many there were at the finish. I do know that after we finished ...showered.... and ate the BBQ chicken dinner provided... there were still alot of riders finishing.

The bikes held up well; other than one flat tire we had no issues. If you look at the mud and such on the shifting mechanisms it is amazing how well they functioned

It was nice to finish 9th against all age groups covering 50 miles at 50 years old.