Well, the whole day turned out to be a lot of fun! (For me, anyway!) I ended up carrying wheels and an official for the Cat 5 men and they only did one lap, so I was a little disappointed in that. Hubby and son got to do Cat 1, 2 men which started with the Cat 3s. They shortened the race to 3 laps because of the heat, but they got to go the whole distance, which is what I wanted to do.

There were only two racers in his category--one Cat 1 and one Cat 2. They quickly pulled away from the Cat 3s and stayed together for most of it, until the last big hill, where the Cat 2 got cooked and told them to pass. So hubby/son went the whole course following just one or two guys. (One of them was a gold medalist in the Pan-Am Games and an Olympian, and one is on the Olympic team--or was--I can't remember.)

The hills were widow-makers for most of the Cat 5s, but amazingly the stragglers regrouped right before the end and caught up to the main peloton and almost all of them finished together. One guy got dropped in the first 2 miles and we never saw him again. How sad for him! I didn't get to honk my horn for any of them crossing the yellow line. One guy dropped his chain TWICE going uphill but still caught up. There were a couple of guys that led the whole way, and of course, they won.

I got to ask a lot of questions about bike racing while we were following, so that was fun. There were only 2 sets of wheels and two seat bags in my car! One guy asked me what to do if he doesn't have wheels, and we both came to the conclusion that he'd be SOL changing a flat with only one lap.

The other thing that was fun was getting to hand out cold water bottles as they rode by after the finish. They were so grateful cuz it was f'ing hot and we all got splashed and that felt good.

It was the first time for these guys to put on a race (the Arkansas State Championship), and I thought they did a really good job. Everyone wanted it not to be in August, and to start earlier in the morning next year!

Thanks for the education gals! I managed to not feel like a total moron!

Karen