Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

What a weekend. Drove down to Fort Smith on Friday night, walked into my hotel room, and I suddenly felt like a pro. My new teammate and friend Mike Macdonald had been comped a room at the Residence Inn there in FS. It was so stinking nice. I felt like a domestic cat V. I saw a hot tub, and I had a feeling that I would have to use that thing on Saturday night.

After a fitful night of sleep I got up early so that I could get ready for my first of four races on Saturday morning. The race got started, and I could not believe that I still had something in me after taking so much time off this summer. The pack was chillin' and I was feeling good in the top ten, and then the dreaded PSSSSSSSSST sound when a flat happens. It was even more dreaded because there were no free laps allowed because we were on five to go. I was ticked for a little while, but my friend Melissa calmed me down and gave me a lot of encouragement. That afternoon in the 4/5 race, I was simply in it for grins. I got dropped, but lasted about 25 minutes in the 40 minute crit. My legs were done.

Saturday night was the racer's dinner at the Rib Room. I would have to say that this was definitely one of the highlights of my weekend. I sat with Melissa and her stud boyfriend, the one and only Brad Freaking Huff, and the rest of the Mercy girls. I was a good boy though. I didn't even flirt.....too much. It was a great opportunity to get to know Melissa even more, and I couldn't be happier for Brad to be with her. They are two great people, and they make an even greater couple. I was starting to get tired, and was really looking forward to the hot tub back at the INN so I left. Apparently, I left before all the drama went down. I'm cool with that.

Sunday, I woke up so much more rested, and as soon as I rode the course one time, I was suddenly a lot more confident. A break went pretty soon in the race, and the chase group was me and 3 Mercy guys. Mercy had 2 guys in the break ahead, so the three ticks were not going to do any work. I would take longer pulls, just getting us a little closer, then I saw that the break had quit working together. I heard Lonnie Kennedy tell me that it was time to get them, so I put the hammer down and caught them in that lap. I tried attacking the group, but it didn't work. I ended up 7th. That afternoon I tried to do the 4/5, but started cramping up on the second lap so I pulled up and shut her down for the weekend.

The true blue highlight of my weekend were my opportunities to pray with people before their race, and even share about my relationship with God. Wearing the Tyson jersey, I noticed people let their guards down around me much more than when I was with ICCC. I had people asking me to pray for them. It was wild. I talked more about my relationship with God, and Christianity in this one weekend of racing, than I had in all my races put together for the ICCC. I'm a missionary to the cycling world.

I'm sure glad that God has allowed me to race again.