Racing Man

As if Mark's job is not dangerous enough he likes to pick out hobbies that are equally as dangerous.  His first passion was Harley's which since we have been married he has owned two.  Though he still loves his harley and rides it occasionally his new passion is mountain bikes.  We bought his first bike in 2004 and have since upgraded a few times to where I hope he is happy.  He has turned half of our garage into a row of bikes consisting of 2 mountain bikes, a road bike and a harley.  Since most of his career he has been deployed I am happy that we now are at a place were he can enjoy some of the things that make him happy like mountain biking.  This spring he joined SERC which is a mountain biking racing circuit for the South East.  Twice a month we travel to race in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee or South Carolina.  He has done really well and improving as the season goes on.

His last race was in Chattanooga where he placed 3rd out of 15 racers.  Ava and I was so proud of him.  It was a very difficult course but he tackled it and raced his best race ever.  I was a little worried while he was racing because one of the racers wrecked his bike and hit his head and had to be airlifted out of there.  I was so happy to see Mark as he rounded to the finish line and see that he was in one piece.  He did however not leave the race with no marks.  He told me that at one point his handle bar hit a tree and it flipped him over the handle bars.  YIKES!!!  I try not to think about the dangers and just focus on how happy this sport makes him.  Just one more race left until the season is over.  As of now his rank standing in the south east is 5th over all.  Way to go Mark!!!!

Good luck kisses for daddy

Although the start and finish of the race was on pavement the majority of the 12 mile race is rocky and narrow like the picture above.  You can see Mark the second one back number 204.