29:48

Twenty Nine Forty Eight.
What, you may ask, is that? Is it a bible verse? No, my right wing, bible-drilling hotentots, it is not a 'For God so loved the world that he invented the bicycle' quote of heretic intent. Is it the total commercial time in a one hour episode of CSI: Hawkinsville? Well, it may very well be, but that contains not its significance in this venue.

That, kids, is my new best time at Thomson.

That's right, sub 30 minutes for one lap. Okay, okay, I admit that that's ride time not total time, but like the asterisk at the end of Maguire's records or the positive B sample on Floyd's record, I refuse to let it alter my achievement. Technically, I stopped for 8 minutes or so to talk to someone and that is not reflected in ride time, but the rest of the ride was non-stop, so THPPPPPBBBTTTT!! - which is the sound it makes when you stick your tongue out and blow real hard. Go ahead, try it.
I was riding by myself and started off cold and not feeling very good. I was pushing myself, but just sort of lacked the drive to really thrash on my poor body. Sometimes when your out alone, you can be merciless and gut it out right to the edge, but it was cool and I wasn't feelin' it quite to that extent. I pushed to around 90% or so and ended up at the spider web in 10:20, where I stopped to talk to Diana, who was undecorating. After that I was feeling a lot better since I was nicely warmed up, and proceeded to run the back side of the trail without stopping. By the time I came up the smoking room, I had to stop for about 30 seconds so my vision would quit wavering, but continued on without really recovering. The new reroutes really help with maintaining your speed. My legs started coming apart before my lungs really gave out. At the top of the climbs, my form started to fall apart. My knees would start angling out randomly and the handlebars were sawing back and forth like I was trying to cut the fork off, but with concentrated effort I managed not to fall on my ass and keep moving. It's like my body was saying, I'll go any direction I can if I don't have to push straight down on the pedal.
All in all, I think I could have pushed harder. I had a little left, I didn't leave everything on the trail. Maybe next time.
But, having typed that, I have to wonder. Did I really have any more? or is that my cycling addiction talking? Only one way to find out......