Birthday weekend antics September 21, 2009

Last Saturday was my birthday (and International Talk Like a Pirate Day!), and also the date of the Mountainbiking Otago Haggis Hunter 6 hour race. I was originally going to call this post “it’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to”, because, to be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to spending a large chunk of my birthday watching an event I couldn’t race. However, the day turned out to be a lot more enjoyable that I thought.

The race was from 4pm-10pm, and I kindly offered to be the tail-end charlie for the first lap  so at least I got some riding in without the pressure of “racing”..

After heading out for my “sifty” tail-end charlie lap, I then helped out a bit with the timing, and hung around and supported Scotty who was tackling the 6 hour solo. He made it to the 4 hour mark before his lower back was hurting too much (a combination of running a hardtail frame a bit too small for long-distance XC riding, and his limited gearing..). I managed to also catch up with quite a few people who I hadn’t seen in a while, and enjoyed a couple of BBQs that were going – gotta love the social aspects of 6/12/24 hour MTB events. A bit later in the evening, I took someone else’s bike out (just for a change!), accompanying a friend on her night lap. It was quite interesting riding another bike, especially when the setup, geometry, and suspension system were sufficiently different from mine to take notice.

So all in all, it ended up being quite a good birthday. I managed to get a couple of laps in, and got to hang out with like-minded people who enjoy riding bikes as much as I do.

And if that wasn’t enough, I made an impulse purchase yesterday and bought a new laptop as a late birthday present to myself

Yarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!! ( I never spoke like a pirate on my birthday, so that’ll make up for it!).