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ft. ord
2005/12/18
senior b
6th/13

didn't sleep very well last night because of the sheer volume of the weather. driving rain pounded on the skylights and windows while wind gusts rattled the deck door. hard to settled down to sleep without thinking of the race ahead. glad i slept lots friday night and grabbed a nap saturday afternoon. the drive down was equally eventful. picked up cisco out by the beach and headed for great hightway, which was partially closed. detoured to frederick where we saw a manhole cover lying next to its hole having been blown off from air and/or water pressure from below. glad i saw it and didn't drive over it. 280 south was pouring rain with crosswinds gusting sheets of water across it.

turns out monterey was calmer than the peninsula, but plenty wet. only had about 30 minutes to warmup once we finally arrived and got geared up. got a couple laps around the messy course in before heading to the starting line. much shorter laps than last time, with plenty of slick muddy corners and a zig-zag slog across a muddy field. my drivetrain was begging for mercy from the grit before the race was even underway.

just a small group of 13 diehards in the b's, no callups. got off the line with the lead group. tim granshaw flew by in the first couple laps looking really fast and quickly built a gap. others tried to pursue without much luck. i felt decent on the fast sections (typical) but had a hard time keeping pace through the slippery stuff. i don't think the tufos were hooking up so well in the slop. we were spared rain during our race, and the corners got noticably tackier as our race progressed. we even saw the sun for a few minutes. i slowly made progress on some of the guys i'd lost touch with, but it wasn't enough. 6th place was a little disappointing because i've beaten everyone who was ahead of me at some point this season. granshaw only once. the others multiple times.

the silver lining was that my closest competitors for the series were both behind me. andrew hammond in 7th, and david samples in 8th. i gained 3 points on samples, who now has only 3 points on me for the series win going into the finals. drastic changes in conditions really can mix things up.

another deluge settled in hard just after the finish and we all took cover of the military buildings we were parked near. left without a warm down. encountered more weather on the return trip and saw some of the carnage from the thunderstorm that had hit the city while we were gone. flooded and closed roads, dark traffic lights with confused drivers, and all sorts of jetsam on the roads.

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