What not to say when drinking wine for 8 hours

By the greatest husband in the world – A.K.A. – Dave

After drinking wine all afternoon at an organized wine tasting event, we ended up at the home of friends to have a little more wine and some food. I casually brought up the subject of an upcoming mountain bike race to a couple of fellow drinkers. Unfortunately, Paula heard me, and fellow drinker, Mike remembered my volunteering to be on a team, so as the week dragged on, I found myself agreeing to be part of a 4 man team competing in an 8 hour mountain bike race.

Someone more creative than me, found a reason not to ride, so instead of two 4 man teams, we made two 3 man teams.

For those who think central Australia is all flat, all they need to do is jump on a mountain bike and start riding the trails on the edge of town. You will shortly realize that Alice Springs may be flat for a road bike, but it is quite hilly on a mountain bike. Throw in the excitement of having roo’s jumping across your trail and the possibility of being eaten by man eating camp dogs; you are bound to have an interesting race. Not to mention being over forty and out of shape.

The loop was just under 8 miles. The fastest riders were doing the loop in less than 30 minutes. The slowest riders were just under an hour (58 minutes). I averaged about 51 minutes (about 5th slowest of 26 riders in the 8 hr competition). I quickly realized after the first lap that I was horribly out of shape, and that if the dogs got close, I was a goner. Luckily for me, I managed to finish 3 laps without incident, and our team finished 5th (out of 6 teams).

Since that race, I’ve gotten much more focused on my training. I’m racing at the upcoming Masters Games (road bike only), and hope to do much better! Held in each state of Australia, the Masters Games are sort of a mini-Olympics for people over 40. Thousands of people from across Australia will arrive in Alice to compete and party. Last year the town sold out of beer and condoms. I’ll tell you how that goes in a few weeks.

Dave

PS – Here a few pictures taken by my not athletic photo taking wife: