Yankee Springs History

Vintage 1990's Yankee Springs Photo:
(Damn I tried...)

I was emptying out our spare bedroom/office/gym last night and found all my old training logs and race results. I took a break from packing to review 12 years of files. I started racing in '95 but it didn't occur to me to save any records until I started doing something that closely resembled training in '97. I don't think it has taken anyone else in the history of mountain bike racing as long as me to crawl up from Sport to Expert. This is the problem with having no natural athletic ability. I'm not bitter. I have perseverance, and given a choice between the two, I would pick perseverance. I was surprised (as I am every time I look at my race results) by how little things have changed.

Yankee Springs is always Michigan's first real race of the season, a race that I have competed in almost every year for no particular reason; it just worked out that way. My results were:

1997 52:38 23rd out of 41 in Sport
1998 49:11 14th out of 43 in Sport
1999 54:34 24th out of 49 in Sport
2000 52:03 15th out of 30 in Sport
2001 52:53 9th out of 33 in Sport
2004 54:21 17th out of 45 in Sport
2005 54:45 9th out of 33 in Sport
2006 54:06 11th out of 33 in Sport
2007 53:48 14th out of 23 in Expert
2008 56:39 25th out of 29 in Expert
2009 1:49:37 22nd out of 39 in Expert (two laps that year)

I'm not positive but I think the course grows a little bit every few years.

This takes me to 2010. I didn't preregister for Yankee Springs this year. First, my results are predetermined (1:48, putting me near the middle of 40 - 49 Expert). Second, the girls have a dance competition that weekend.

Here is the obvious dilemma: what kind of dad would I be if I miss my daughters' dance competition for a bike race, especially a time trial in which I think I already know my time. If I post a race result on 4/18, there will be no need to guess.