Randy Word

Thank you to everyone involved, volunteering or participating, in
making this year's race our best ever!

The weather was beautiful, but the ground was still damp enough to
keep dust down. The conditions were perfect! Again we heard nothing
but compliments on the course.

Setup the day before was lots of fun, with the Hart family. Fun with
the exception of the yellow jacket nest. I was cutting back
blackberry vines when I disturbed a nest. I was stung on the arm, and
one of the Hart boys was also stung. After everything settled down, I
put my gloves back on, only to discover they had a yellow jacket
inside and I got stung again!

Registration went smoothly thanks to Adonia (Pat's Acres), Alex
White, the Hart girls, and Maya & Gillian Bergmann.

Course marshaling (and course safety) was covered by Tim Bergmann and
both of his girls, Tim White, Alex White, the entire Hart family,
Greg Campbell, and Cindy Campbell (who also was our onsite Nurse).

I also want to thank the Pat's Acres people for their hospitality and
help. Dave for making the trails and setting up the log obstacles &
river crossing. Chris & Lisa (the owners). Chris with making things
happen and helping with the trails & river crossings, and Lisa for
tremendous administrative & organizational help. Plus they donated
several gift certificates, and a crew to cook up hot foods & drinks.

Speaking of gift certificates, thanks to Bortolami's for several gift
certificates. And thank you to Muscle Milk for providing free drinks.

Of course thank you's wouldn't be complete without thanking the OBRA
officials. Brian List was the chief ref, and did an excellent job,
and Melanie Rathe (chief judge) is always one of my absolute
favorites to work with. Thanks to the full OBRA crew: Terri Camp,
Mielle Blomberg, Katie Staples, Stephanie Johnson, and Ed Norton.

Extra thanks to Brian Hart for driving me back to the Velodrome (to
pick up my car) on Friday, and driving the OBRA truck back on Saturday.

A big thanks to all the participants. We had a great turnout, and
enjoyed some great racing.

Hopefully I'm not leaving anyone out in my thank you's, let me know
if I missed anyone. I only managed 3 hours of sleep in 40 plus hours,
but it was a great weekend and I can't wait for next year!

Randy Word, CrossWord CX Challenge

Randy Word

We had a blast promoting the CrossWord CX Challenge again this year
at Pat's Acres, but we couldn't have done it without the support of
many people.
- First off, thank you to all who attended.
- Thank you to Pat's Acres for providing a killer venue. They also
provided the food, several volunteers, and gift certificates.
- Thank you to the OBRA crew for doing what they do, and doing it very well
- Thank you to Cindy Campbell, for providing the first aid
(thankfully she was very bored most of the time)
- Thank you to the Hart family for helping day of race, and the day
before with setup (at both events), and making cool hats!
- Thank you to John Benenate, Tim Bergmann, Csaba and members of our
Word-RCB Cyclisme team for volunteer work
- Thank you to my son, Ethan, for volunteering from early in the AM
before the sun rose, to late at night picking up cones in the dark
- Thank you to Patrick, and Jeanne for helping with setup the day
before, and giving me a ride back to Alpenrose to pick up my car
- Thank you to my wife for being okay with me putting on this event
even though the nearly all day setup on Friday was on our 21st Anniversary
- Thank you to WORD Web Design for providing a web page, and the cash
flow to make the event happen
- Thank you to River City Bicycles for providing gift certificates to
the Juniors
- Thank you to John for choosing our event as one of the Junior
Championship series
- Thank you to several people for providing photos & videos online
- Thank you to everyone else who helped, but that I didn't include in
the list above. I've had very little sleep in the last 3 days, so I
may not have remembered everyone, but thanks to you, too!

Sincerely,
Randy Word