Friday, October 5, 2012

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Willy, Debra, Tim and I arrive at the Hyatt Regency Valencia in Santa Clarita to meet up with Jason, Lisa, Steve and Julie for the FC 508 Pre-Race/Check In. Inspections for the bikes and support vehicles are located in the rear parking lot of the hotel. 

Since we are a 4 tandem relay team, we are allowed an extra vehicle to transport the tandems. Steve did a fantastic job of setting up his pickup truck to accommodate 3 tandems in the rear bed. Both vehicles are inspected for proper width, signage, lights and racks.

The tandems are inspected for having both working headlights and taillights.

After all inspections are done, we head to the Canyon Country Room in the Hyatt for the Racer Check-In. We turn in the mandatory $1 for each team, check in and get our SWAG bags (508 T-shirt, cap, Hammer towel, energy bar & gel and the FC 508 race magazine).

We even get our team photo taken: GRAY GOOSE.

The mandatory pre-race meeting begins at 4PM in the Grand Ballroom. The ride director, Chris Kostman talks about everything from the route, the permits, the volunteers, crew members, racers, Hall of Fame inductees and everything else in between. Most importantly he says “soak up the experience, enjoy it and finish it!” I’m going to take that to heart and make that my goal for the next two days!

This year’s race roster includes 234 competitors – 127 solo and team divisions.

Tomorrow morning is going to be the start of a fabulous weekend of riding!

Click here to continue on to Stage One

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An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are  capable of performing.
~Samual Smiles
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*some photos are taken by Julie Gray, Chris Kostman & Ron Jones