HOT flash back

Finally the H.O.T. race course was posted today, I think something was wrong with the file because it took some work to get it to show up and then it took me about 20 minutes to figure out how the course ran due to it's poor quality. This year the organizers have really tried to shake things up. The course appears to be all climbing and descending and if I'm reading it correctly will cross the mountain 3 or 4 times. Right off the bat it takes you halfway up the backside of the Hill of Truth and then half way through the course we get to climb the front. I have a good feeling I'll be doing some hike a bike. I was planning on running the Karate Monkey on a few laps but that plan may fall to the wayside, I haven't decided yet. This year will be the 5th year GRT will be racing at the HOT and every other year we have seen rain the day before the race making the course a nasty mess. Two days ago the weather forecast was a 50% chance of rain now it's 30 on Fri and 0 on Sat. It's still pretty early to tell what will unfold but I'm crossing my fingers for a dry race. We've seen enough rain this year.
I was looking through all my previous photos and I found all but the first year, what happened to those pics I'm not sure but it was funny to see my clothing of choice/facial hair throughout the years.

2005: The missing pics, maybe we didn't own a camera back then I can't remember. I think we placed somewhere around 7th place?

2006: The first year I rocked the Fu Manchu stashe, note the full suspension and kid sized wheels. Nice peachy undershirt buddy. I rode this bike at both the 05' & 06' races. We faired better that year placing 5th.

2007: I rocked the Fu Manchu again and moved up to the big boy wheels, 29er son. This was also the only year I rocked the whole race on my singlespeed, GRT placed 3rd that year in the singlespeed category.

2008: GRT moved back to the sport category due to not everyone on the team owning an SS. Also I was just coming off a back injury so gears were a must. This year I went for a little different look. Baggies and a sleeveless T, NASCAR style! The sport category was a bit tougher that year than back in 2006 and we had to settle for 6th. After the race I was looking over the laps laid down by each team in sport I realized if we had gone back out for one more lap we would have moved up to 5th. This will not happen again, I'll do back to back laps if I have to.

2009: GRT is signed up for the sport category again and this year I feel fitter and stronger, my back is no longer bothering me. My plan is to run the Mamasita on the first lap and get a feel of the course then maybe switch back and forth to the Monkey to see which is faster. I have a feeling with all the climbing in store my times maybe faster on the Mamasita if I can stay on the bike.