Friday 16 January 2009

Game On

Unless I screw up Tuesday's meeting with the local chieftans, the Lost River Classic is a go. The team's executive commitee has approved the race's bright red budget. Those of you going to Jay's over the next couple of months (and there are clearly a ton of you - the place is booked until kingdom come) will get to preview the track. It's a great loop, I feel very confident that it's the best it could be given all the factors.

The funny part is that I never wanted to promote a race. I've been somewhat heavily involved with the team since I've been on it - running registration at events, being cat 4 captain, organizing rides and trips to the barn and coordinating some of our sponsorship stuff - but actually putting a race on never appealed to me. Now that I'm doing it, it's pretty fun. There have been some stressful moments already, but the stress and hair pulling will certainly be point loaded right around the event. I hope I get to race the stupid thing, which I'll only do if everything is running smoothly enough that I'm not haired out and over-tweaked by the time it happens. If you see me pinning a number on, that will be a very good indication that things have gone smoothly.

As soon as it became clear that doing this race wasn't just an idle threat, I knew I'd be going to Lost River a bunch and right then made a deal with myself that I'd never go out there without getting a ride in. Tuesday will test my mettle on that one, with a forecast high of 31. Zoinks. Anyhow, I think it's important for me to stick to this if at all possible. A bit difficult to explain the logicbehind it but in shorthand it's to remind myself that I'm doing it to try and help bike racing be more fun and interesting, not to prove that I am johnny ace race promoter. Maybe that's splitting hairs a bit (I do that sometimes), but the point is that race promoters around here generally do an insanely good job. I hope I do as well as most of them. But we have this resource that has a ton of things going for it, so why not try and hold a race on what a lot of people have come to recognize is just an awesome place to ride.

As to the question of why there and not someplace marginally closer: there are a couple of things that Lost River has that Frederick and other places don't. One is Jay and Audrey, without whom this would be exponentially more difficult. Two is a very hospitable municipality that not only will tolerate the race but really wants to have us. Three is my interest. Through my earlier visits out there, I developed a connection with the area out there and wanted a way to solidify that. So for those who wonder why I'm not doing this on Anglers Hill or much more realistically in Frederick or someplace a bit closer than Lost River, it wasn't that I chose between Lost River and other places, the choice was between Lost River and nothing. I have zero interest in doing this anywhere else. Hopefully you'll all come and race and have a great time and this will be all it can be

July 25, 2009. Write that down.

4 comments:

Jesse said...

How about a course map?

Chuck Wagon said...

See profile posted previously for now.

Chuck Wagon said...

Link to map was also already posted on 12/30/09

John(ny) said...

I don't know anything about putting on a race, but I imagine it's not unlike running a major construction project. It's all about coordination, communication, and managing expectations. Seems like you've got a handle on all three. Thanks for doing this.