...o/o

Even though I had my warmest mitts on, the cold started biting into my fingers. It might be that my hands were falling asleep from riding all night, maybe it was the cold. I kept focus on the challenge … the race.

I almost missed the river crossing and looked for a landmark to guide me to the next section of snowmobile trail. Scary tree or something like that. Hours passed and I figured I was halfway through the night. I passed a big frozen lake and continued to the superhighway trail on the river. I didn't see many snow machines tonight though. It was at least 60 below zero. I spotted a glow of light in a cabin on the far banks, 10 miles to go. Later my lighting system started to flicker and I wandered if I could make the next checkpoint. Now turning onto another trail towards the oasis of heat and nourishment I can not feel my hands. Now on land again I followed a fence line ... half mile to go. I comforted myself and strained my glare into the darkness. Where is that check point? My eyelids grew heavy and I started to shiver, the bike moving slower now.

I just did ball pikes and my injured rib burns each time I thrust my rear end into the air. Today is a easy day and tonight I would sew up “easy” with some “pain lab”. My mind drifts off to today’s ride from work. A new coating of snow necessitated me riding to work with Larry my snow bike. Combine that with the training plan calling for a “30 minute recovery ride” and I was all set for a tour of Bozeman’s best fitness trails on the fatty.

The snow is now falling outside and the world will wake up to a new blanket of snow. A lot of things happened leading up to tonight that the general populous didn’t know about. I knew it as "operation groundhog" and now I can finally go public with what went own to make it happen.

Monday January 31st, 1800. A decision was made by top authority to leave the snow bike in my car giving the impression that snow was no longer important and said bike was gently put up for sale by distributing the word on the campus of MSU in the following three days.  Tuedsay February 1st, 0300. With the snow bike up for sale I was instructed to get my cross bike running and even went as far as doing a couple training rides on it.