Friday, February 18, 2011

Always the bride's maid, well I chide
And I'm never the bride
I know, second isn't bad
But in Aspen it's all I ever

Was leading both races at the half
Although that's not much unlike in years past
I guess I've got to pick up all the slack
If I'm to take it in March on the ide

Ironically, I'm actually planning on racing on March 15, so I guess that works out really well.

Well, I guess the only really interesting thing to happen to me lately was the Owl Creek Chase.  Two SuperTours in Aspen.  This year, they were also RMN and RMISA qualifiers, so that brought a lot more people than the usual SuperTour crowd and made for a really fun atmosphere.

To give you a bit of background, last year I was second in both of the races.  So I was the defending...uh...second place guy.  Fairly early in the 10km classic I started getting splits that I was on the good side of a very slim margin with Sylvan Ellefson.  For most of the race, in fact, I was hearing a variety of small numbers, but always in the green.  Then I heard I was even shortly before the finish.  As it turned out, I ended up on the bad end of the margin by the finishline.

The next day was the Owl Creek Chase, a 21km mass start skate race that starts in Snowmass and ends in Aspen.  There are three hills on the course, but they're all pretty decent sized, so I had high hopes.  I just wanted to make sure I had a sizable lead going over the top of the course.  As it turned out, I did have a lead, but it wasn't enough.  In the end, I lost to Sylvan again.  I guess I can't complain too much.  I've been consistent at Aspen, defending my second place guy title in both races, and Sylvan's a great guy.  But still, I've never won a SuperTour.  Although I do have a lot of seconds, and that's got to count for something, right?  I mean, it's not like we live in ancient Greece.

Oh, and the last title was based on Let It Be, by The Beatles.