This is the "short option" - there was a longer 60 mile race going on at the same time.

My 12-year old son was riding and he is faster than me. I estimate he was 20 minutes ahead of me at the end of the first loop. Then about 15 minutes into my second loop, I found him walking back down the course, on the edge of tears. He had bonked. I asked him what he had eaten at the last feed station. Nothing. What had he eaten for the last 2.5 hours, 2 shot blocks, and water. So I sat him down, gave him Luna bar, gatorade, and a shot block. I told him the next check point was closer than going back. We walked and slowly rode for about 15 minutes, then he perked right up, and we rode for the next hour together. I think he was a little spooked by the whole thing. I kept forcing him to eat every 20-30 minutes. He would complain that he wasn't hungry. I told him it wasn't about hunger, and that we needed to keep his blood sugar up. He had forgotten his bike gloves, so I gave him mine. I gave him my shot blocks so I switched over to caffeinated sport beans. He ran out of water, so I gave him my water. With about 3 miles left, I let him go and he picked up his normal pace. He finished 3 minutes ahead of me.

My hubby's bike shorts were so uncomfortable! I chafed my butt down to 2 weeping sores on my sit-bones. Ouch.

Even though hubby and I told son he would have to eat along the course, somehow we should have better prepared the little guy. I should have noticed that he didn't have his gloves on at the start. I should have brought more water, and made him take more water.

Other than that, aerobically I felt good. My quads, shoulder, neck and hands got tired. I haven't done any technical riding this year.

This is a new race and it was very well organized - part of both the EFTA series and a Canadian-American endurance series. The race was very oriented to the 60 mile race, so the short race was sort of downplayed.

I was so proud of husband for winning his age cat, and for my son for finishing. I felt like a good mom for being able to rescue him on the course. Otherwise he would have dropped out, and perhaps never raced again. As it is, he is very proud but says he prefers shorter races.

Final results not posted yet, I will update with finals. I think there were 40 starters, and 10 DNF's. No classes or ages. I think I was 5 out of 8 women to finish. Son was 2 out our 2 Jr's. The other kid was a year older and a lot bigger.