The seventh race was at Evergreen High School, which is down in Burien. This usually tends to be a pretty fun course and is pretty spectator friendly. For people racing, the only big thing is a decent (in comparison to the other courses in the series) run up.

I've decided to put on hold the idea of creeping up front mainly because I don't really belong up there quite yet. They also call up the top 20 ppl (based on total series points), and then everyone else lines up behind them. I'm generally in the last to second to last row.

In the spirit of getting amped up though I decided to get a good song going in my head a few minutes before start. This time it happened to be the Judas Priest rendition of "Johnny Be Good".

The start goes off, and in the first quarter of a lap I've moved up significantly. Enough so that I'm pretty much in a holding pattern throughout the rest of the race.

I think this is where a better cardiovascular system would be key. I find that for sure by the second lap, I'm not passing anyone anymore, and it's a matter of not crashing as to lose positions.

I think a very good gauge of cardio fitness will be how I treat the runups on each lap. The first one is fastest of course. The second is slower, and the subsequent ones I walk up. The reasoning behind this is by this point I'd rather take my time easing up the hill rather than trying to bust my ass going up and then spending literally a half a lap recovering.

In the end I finished 29th out of 56 (51.7%), which is probably my best showing this year. I'm particualarly happy with this as I was only 9 back from the top 20 who got to be positioned at the beginning.

Race eight was held at the South Seatac course, which in my mind (and I think most ppl would agree) is the most challenging course of the series. More so when it's wet.

As you may recall this is the course I was pulled from earlier this year. It was much colder this time around, still wet but not raining. I showed up early enough to be able to see how people were handling a small section of the course that included a run-up and also some barriers after registration. After that it was time to head down to the starting line. Typical situation again here with the top 20 getting called up and me near the back. The only switch this time was I had "Welcome to the Jungle" stuck in my head, not so much by choice but it did the trick.

The only main difference (and one that I'll really try to get a jump on for the finale next week) was that I purposefully tried my best to jump as many positions in the first quarter lap as possible. This turned out to be an ok tactic, the only down side was that I was now looking at 30 minutes of lung busting nirvana.

See the thing that sucks about a wet South Seatac is that you've got a ton of mud and wet sand to deal with. This does two things really. First it sucks your energy harder than you think. Secondly, it makes your drivetrain do annoying little things like not shift, or perhaps even better, want to not stay in gear and instead auto-shift for you depending on how much force you apply.

I was stuck with the latter of these options and on the times where you could go a bit faster (pavement) I'd be constantly grinding the hell out of my cassette between my two "auto-shift" gears. Again, didn't hold me from the podium, but it was damn annoying. I defintely lost one spot because of it.

The silver lining in all of this? The crank-brothers pedals handled much much better than the froggies. Not 100%, but once I was clipped in I was in.

The good news is I was able to finish the race without getting pulled. The other news is I came in 30th out of 44.

Next week is the series finale down at Kelley Creek (down in Auburn). If you've ever thought about wanting to come out and watch this would be the time to do it. Double points for the racers, and an extremely spectator friendly course. You'll be able to see at least 3/4's of the course at all times if you stand on the hill. [directions]