Snowshoe #2 – Mike & Amy

August 1, 2013

While some of our team was in the Adirondacks for the GES #5 Oak Mountain race, Mike and Amy were down south for Snowshoe Series #2. And they came back with some podiums and some jewelry. Congrats you two. We love you both and you wish you many more years together : )

Mike Render, Third Place, Snowshoe Series #2

Mike Render, Third Place, Snowshoe Series #2

Amy Leishear, Second Place Pro Ladies, Snowshoe Series #2"

Amy Leishear, Second Place Pro Ladies, Snowshoe Series #2

Race Overview

Write up courtesy of Mr. Render

Amy went down early on Wed. to do some riding with some friends that are living down there. I couldn’t get time off to join her so I went down on Sat. morning and got rained on pretty hard. When I got to our friends’ place I found out Amy had gone to the ER because she had gotten some pretty bad and uncomfortable hives. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait to long for her to get back and Amy was in better shape. We caught up and then packed to go get some runs in. While Amy was loading the car I enlisted the help of our greyhound, Mirra, to ask Amy to marry me. I tied the engagement ring to Mirra’s collar with some ribbon and sent her on her way to see Amy. I consider myself very lucky to have Amy in my life and she did say “yes.”

Congrats Mike & Amy! Photo Creds: Go Jam Media

Congrats Mike & Amy! Photo Creds: Go Jam Media

On to the course…it was sloppy. They ran the Pro’s and some of the Am’s on Upperhairball and then Lowerhairball. For everyone else, they replaced Lowerhairball with the bottom section of Pro DH. Amy and I did a run on my course and then we did another run with Lowerhairball included as she was going to have to ride that. I will say LHB was outside of my skill set as it is almost all roots and rocks and has some very steep sections to boot. Very little in the way of traction on most of the trail.

Render Over Rocks.

Render Over Rocks.

More rain came in that evening. Practice Sunday morning was messy again. The sun did come out and made Upperhairball more manageable but it was still pretty slick at race time. I had a pretty clean run and felt good about my time. Got on the podium in third, close to under a minute on the first place guy who had over two minutes on me in race 1. Amy said that LHB had actually gotten worse as mud seemed to be getting deposited on the rocks. I heard the same from many of the guys. She got on the podium with a second place finish despite what she described as being “pinballed” down LHB. It was a great weekend down at SS.

Mike Render, Race Run.

Mike Render, Race Run.

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