Is it really Halloween?

Today will be the first Halloween in years ( I can't even remember) that I will NOT be celebrating Halloween!!!  Instead Chris and I have been basking in the sun in Hawaii.  OKAY...OKAY...sun and clouds.  I wont lie...we have had rain nearly every day since we have been here!  But it's not like Seattle rain, and most of the rain has been at night when it's dark, so no biggie.  I realized I left Washington in a hurry trying to forget my last cross race. 

Chris, Whitney, Aaron, Katie, and I all carpooled to the MFG race in Kent on Oct. 24th.  Here is how it went....awful.  Whitney and I warmed up together (she decided to race in the 3's since it was a self seeding field) and it was pretty cold, but that's okay.  We rode up and down the road a few times, ate some cliff shots and then decided we should head over to the start line.  As we were heading that way the rain came back (do we remember that day?  If you are like me you have blocked it out of your memory).  It came back with avengence and it started pouring.  So instead of continuing to warm up Whitney and I stood under the Nuun tent waiting for the race start.  We soon find out they are delayed.  We stood under that tent for nearly 40 minutes freezing our assess off.  To make a long mizerable morning short...I didn't want to race after standing in the cold and rain, we lined up, I was cold.  There is no better way to describe the race other than I was cold.  I was cold when we started, my legs weren't warmed up, and I wanted to be in Hawaii.  That race was by far my worse cross race EVER.  I will choose to block it out of my memory. I placed 6/8.  Horrible.  At least I can say I have that race out of the way. Here is Whitney, Aaron, and Katie at Starbucks waiting for our hot chocolate!

And now for the good news.  HAWAII!!!!  I love it.  It's warm, the sun shines, everything about this place is for me.  I wake up early even...without a problem!

There isn't much to update you on, other than this place is amazing.  I will give you some photos.  Chris and I tried to go on a bike ride a couple days ago.  When we got out of the car we thought we were going to get blown away.  It was as windy as a ferry boat.  So we decided to just do a little out and back ride.  Well Chris is SO smart he didn't bring the pump with him since we were only going out for a little bit (typical male) and I got a flat tire.  So he rode back to the car, and I sat and waited. 

Then I got stunng by a bee.  I wasn't happy and it hurt.

Did you know what the Hawaiin state flag looks like?  I didn't...until today.  It's under the USA flag.  SInce that ride was a fail we decided to ride the following day.  If you don't already know this, we are staying in Kona (the big island) and the Hawaiin Islands are formed from Volcanoes (I hope you know this) and well the big Island is nothing but a series of lots of mountains.  So if you go anywhere you climb big hills.  So we climbed up to about 1500ft (from sea level) in about 9 miles.  Check it out...

Today we were going to go to Captain Cook's memorial, but decided against it because we didn't feel like walking 2 miles directly downhill.  So instead we drove farther South to an easier access beach and Snorkeled.  We saw Dolphins, fish, turtels, eels.  All sorts of sea life.  I am enjoying my time.  Now as I sit here drinking my blended beverage I will leave you with some photos to admire. 

We crashed the Mauna Kea Resort Public Beach...this is paradise for sure!Who has my Mai Tai?



Some old man showed Chris how to do this, naturally I posed



This was taken today at an awesome snorkeling beach. 



Today

 Tomorrow we are off to the Volcano.  Given the sun doesn't change my mind like it did today!!  I hope that we can see some flowing Lava for Chris.  I used to come to Hawaii all the time with my Grandma and Grandpa (which reminds me) when we were growing up so I have seen all the touristy things there are to see.  But the Volcano is very cool. 

Nearly every day Chris and I have gone into town to walk around.  It's so awesome we ride our bikes 2 miles to town and it's SO easy.  The other day we were in some Sandal shop and I hear this women say to her childen "Look with your eyes not with your hands".  I nearly had a heart attack, or a laughing attack  When we were growing up my Grandma used to say "Touch with your eyes not with your hands" so we would go around to everything put our eyes on it.  She would get SO mad.  I have never heard anyone say those words since my Grandma.  It was very funny .

Maybe I will sneak away and report about the Volcano tomorrow....just MAYBE. 

It's time to break out the baby powder

I promised a race report, so here it comes.   I figured I better get this out there before next weekend, that way I wont have to give 2 reports! 
Sunday was the least nervous I have been yet (this year)!  A lot of pressure I was feeling before was GONE!  The first race I was nervous because I didn't know where I would match up with the rest of the women in my field, then the 2nd race I was nervous because I wanted to win again so I could upgrade.  Well, I was granted my upgrade and ready to race in the 1/2's. 


More sand



The setting of this course was at Silverlake in Everett.  What a great park, lots of sand..too much sand, lots of hills, and lots of off camber.  I was having so much fun watching everyones race, the day was beautful, the absolute opposite of last weekend.  Around 11:30 I decided I should probably get dressed and ride a lap or two of the course.  The best(worst) part of the course was the sand pit(trap), or beach, and when you start the race you just go head first into the sand.  No preparation what so ever.  After the sand pit you go into the woods and encounter your first barrier.  I really enjoyed this section a lot...kind of reminded me of mountain biking, roots, dirt, corners, fast downhill.  Lots of fun!  Then it's back into the sand pit and up into the hills for some brutal leg and lung burning, down some fun turns, and back to the sand.  After pre-riding 2 laps of this I decided that was enough, and it was time for the 1/2 men to race.  Half way through their race I started my warm up, and about 20 minutes into my warm up I was bored and I had enough, so I went back to the tent and watched the rest of the race with teammates Nikole and Whitney, and Chris too! 



dismount at the top of a hill I couldn't ride

The men finish up their race and the next group of riders start lining up.  I get to the start line and I look around me to see how freakin' STACAKED the field is!  There were some super fast ladies there, it's a goal for me...one day be one of those "super fast ladies", then people at the start line will fear me too!  I also realized I have to be the youngest women in the field by at least 5 years.  The man says the word  and we are off!!  What a cluster, to get started right away in the sand with all those people around you.  For all fields we did a half lap for the first time through, so instead of getting a break after the first sand section, you did a U-turn and continued onto some more sand.  So when I get to the first sand section I ride a little bit, dismount, shoulder my bike and start running.  I ran to the inside, took the corner to the inside, and then WHACK.  I hit a tree.  OUCH it was soo startling!!!  I should clarify...my rear wheel hit the tree, spun around me and knocked me in all directions (how embaressing).  After being a little startled and watching every single women in my field go past me, I regain my self and keep going...the chasing begins!!  So I immediatly go into chase mode to get the group of ladies in front of me.  Well I ended up catching quite a few of those ladies, then some more.  Then I just sat in one spot for the entire race.  At one point I passed another women, but she passed me back a few minutes later (by the finish I was only 6 seconds behind her).  I was feeling pretty good through out the race, I had raced in Ryan Rickerts race on Saturday, so my legs weren't 100%, even though I only raced his race at about 80%.  The best part of this race was in every single section I had a cheering crew!  It was amazing!  Chris's family came out and watched (Mom, Dad, Sister, Aunt, and Grandpa), so they were all dispersed throughout the course cheering for me, then the random people who see at every race, and THEN my fellow teammate Whitney, our friend Tim, and Jiri (Logan's friend...he likes to heckle me to add more gears).

My chain dropped 4x throughout the entire race....and it wasn't when I was riding the bike!  It fell off after the barriers 2x (two separate sets of barriers), and after the beach sections 2x.  By the last time I just got very frustrated.  So I know I could have done a little bit better had my chain not fallen off 4x.  After talking to other ladies about their race, they said their chain fell off a few times (at least 1x) throughout the race as well, so I didn't feel tooo bad.  It's frustrating because that has never happened to me (except at Evergreen twice!)  Maybe I need a new chain?  WHERE DID I PLACE?!?  I ended up 6th in my race (of 12!)  Right in the middle of the pack, just as I expected to finish. I will not complain about my chain, because 6th isn't too shabby for my first race in the 1/2's. 

 

sand pit


At the end of my race I was really upset about the sand.  It was so hard, and we had to go through it at two different sections of the course.  I hated it, at the end of each sand section we had to go straight up hill.  It was mean, just purely MEAN.  When I got home on Sunday I looked at Russel Stevenson's (Cycling Northwest) facebook and he posted pictures of the Cyclocross World Cup (first race), they had a sand section in their race too.  Now I wish I would have worked harder through it, Katie Compton (USA National Champion) charged through that sand like a pro (wait...she is a pro). 

Go here to check out the womens pictures:
Women's World Cup

Pictures on this page are courtesy of Wheels in focus (Amara Boursaw), and next week I will really try to remember my camera to take some photos of the course and my team!!!

The Bellingham Traverse

Okay friends FINALLY  a race report on the Traverse, I better do it soon before I forget what it felt like!!!  For more info on the Traverse go here:

http://www.bellinghamtraverse.com/

A little history on how I got hooked on the Bellingham Traverse.  Way back in the dark ages of 2007 another trainer at the club I work at suggested doing the Traverse, I thought, wow that would be fun!!  Then she mentioned how she wanted to do it tandem and not as a team, since that would be such a better challenge.  I thought hhmm you are VERY correct, so she hooked me up with another women that would tandem the Traverse with me.  We planned it out very well, I would run the first running leg, she would do the mt bike leg, I would do the road bike leg, she would do the next running leg, and we would kayak together.  Perfect, we finished around 3 hours and 50 minutes and were the first female tandem team to come in...that year.  2008 I convinced Chris he should tandem it with me.  He said okay, this time we switched up the legs a bit, I couldn't bike hard at the time because it was bothering my knee.  So I ran the two running legs and Chris did both biking legs, and we kayaked together.  We were the first tandem co-ed team in, I don't really remember our finishing time, maybe around 3 hours and 20 minutes?!  I started thinking about how much fun this event would be to solo...only problem being I didn't mt bike.  2009, Chris and I tandem it again, this time I run the first running leg (are you seeing a trend here, I seem to always be the one doing that first leg...its HARD), Chris does the mt bike, I do the road bike, Chris does the trail run, and we kayaked together.  We improved quite a bit...especially our kayak time.  Finishing first again in the co-ed tandem around 3 hours and 12 minutes.  Last April I recieved a mt bike and I say to Chris "you know what this means don't you???"  Chris replies..."what?" Me: "We are soloing the traverse this year"

Fast forward to summer when it's time to train.  I kept my fitness up following the road racing season by competing in some mountain bike races.  Following the last mt bike race I started training for the Traverse (soorta).  I really started hitting it hard in August when we got home from the beach in Canada.  No need to write about my training, but I should let you know that I thought this race wouldn't be "too bad".  I can run and bike not a problem, and the kayak..pppssshhhh...you just paddle, it shouldn't be difficult, I don't need to train for the kayak.  WRONG.

The day started out with a lot of nerves, mainly because I wasn't sure if my mother was up to the job as support.  I wasn't sure if she would make it from leg to leg with the equipment I needed...so I was stressing a bit.  My mom drops us off at the start line about an hour before the start.  The energy in the crowd is just amazing, we run into all sorts of people we know, chat a bit, then begin to warm up.  My goal for the first running leg was to finish in 45 minutes, I knew I just needed to hold around 8:00 minute miles and that would get me there with some time to spare.  Well I was feeling pretty good, I checked my watch to make sure I wasn't speeding away at a faster pace (I didn't want to burn myself out before the large hill up the Lake Padden...it gets me every year).  I reach the dreaded hill up Fairhaven Parkway and in front of me I see my friend Dan, who I trained a bit with, and who participated in my thesis.  I realized that I was actually feeling pretty good running up the hill.  I caught up to Dan, and then I just kept running, I passed quite a bit of people on this hill, realizing I did the right thing by pacing myself.  Once I reached the top, I was told I was the 2nd female soloist...Susan was the first.  She is such a stud athlete, of course she zoomed up that hill.  Reaching the transition zone was unreal, the excitement and cheering from the crowd was amazing.  I did the transition of taking my running shoes off, putting my mountin biking shoes on, got on my mt bike and headed off onto the MT bike course. 

The MT bike leg is HARD.  You can ask anyone that has raced it in the Traverse, or any MT biker.  It starts on the lake trail, then heads up into the horse trails shortly after the first uphill.  You keep going up and up and up.  My legs felt slightly tired, but I just needed to get into the groove of the bike.  About 5 minutes or less into the ride I passed Susan and kept going.  If you don't know the course, after you do the first section of the horse trails you go back to the lake trail and then loop back up the horse trails onto this deadly climb...it's really hard.  I passed SO many people on this part of the leg.  I even passed a guy with a full face helmet and downhill bike walking up the trail.  I felt bad for him, I'm sure his team didn't tell him what this course was like.  Anyways, I passed a bunch of people and felt pretty good (as long as I didn't look at my heart rate monitor telling me my heart rate of 185 beats per minute), did all the technical crap and made it out of the course alive and back to the transition area, where the people around were CRAZY!  I could hear all these people talking about how "wow that girl is soloing it herself, wow that's soo amazing" and people cheering for me, whether they knew me or not.  It was so heart warming, I couldn't help but smile.  In order to make the MT bike to road bike transition nothing but short and sweet, I put SPD pedals on my road bike and just hopped off my MT bike and onto my road bike.  Nothing but a beautiful transition. 

Onto the road bike.  I felt weird going from an incredably upright bike to being in my aero bars on my roadbike.  It took me about 10 minutes to figure it out and get into the groove.  I felt like I was flying down the road, like I was a million dollars, going SO fast!  Then I hit the east side of Lake Samish, right where the road goes slightly up, before its flat, and then the big hill.  I said to myself "wow I am feeling tired right now".  Then a little push from heaven came up behind me.  It was nothing short of amazing, I almost saw light.  Turns out it wasn't a push from above, but just from Ben Rathkamp, one of the oldies on the WWU cycling team.  He races the event as a family team, and he blew by me like I was standing still.  He also was only doing that leg...not that it changes how fast he would go by me anyways.  So I fly down (so I feel like it when I am in my aero bars) Old Lake Samish, ride up bonk hill and reach the transition zone for the 3 mile trail run.  I hand my bike off to my mom, get my running shoes on, and away I go. 

WOW my legs felt TIRED!  I just kept thining to myself "left, right, left, right, don't stop moving forward".  The trail run enters in through Fairhaven Park and you start running in the 100acre woods.  Inside these woods are many many many trails that split off in all directions.  As soon as I entered the woods there were two sets of arrors pointing in the opposite direction of eachother.  I had no idea where to go, so I went right, some people behind me went left, and some people followed me.  As I was running up the hill, Chris passed me going down, and he told me "stay left at the top" so I stayed left and ran to the top of some hill saw some yellow tape, thought to myself, well I shouldn't go under the tape, so I went right, made a full circle before I ran into some other people running directly at me, and told me I was going the wrong way.  Apparently you were supposed to go under the tape (WTF) I was irritated, I had now run about 3-5 minutes out of my way (I blocked a lot of this leg out of my memory, so this is a little foggy).  Myself and another girl ducked under the tape and I followed her as we tried to navigate our way through the woods trying to follow misleading arrows.  There were hardly any arrows pointing which way to go, or if there were arrows, they were pointing the wrong way, so a lot of it I just guessed.  Not fun.  We have almost made a full circle, when we start heading down some hill and we realize we made a wrong turn somewhere.  I start to get irritated saying "hello, I don't know where to go, anyone?" Then I look across the trees and bushes and see arrows.  All of the sudden I hear "follow my voice, follow my voice, hello? hello." So I follow this voice, trampling through bushes, irritated, tired, and find the right trail and run out of the woods.  When we see this man (the race director) he kindly tells us there was a homeless man taking down and turning around the arrows.  HOW KIND!!!!  By this time I had been in the woods for about 20 minutes.  I think there should have only been 1 mile in there, I was lost for far too long.  I run out of the woods, slow and angry, I probably ran a good mile extra..or more.  Get to the Kayak.

As soon as I reach the kayak transition zone I ask people for help, run to my kayak.  No one is there to help me, so I start flagging people down waving my hands up in the air saying "I NEED HELP" 2 lovely gentleman came to help me.  I got in my kayak and I realized my arms hurt.  Maybe practicing the kayak leg would have been a good idea.  Oh my, my arms started to hurt even more, so I tried to focus on my abdominals, and using my oliques to turn the paddles, didn't help, they still hurt.  I was tired and there was no way around that feeling.  The kayak I was using had a rutter type thing, but it wasn't a rutter that I used to control my kayak, it just helped me go straight.  It had a lot of drag, and after I reached the bouy out in the bay I decided the thing was slowing me down, so I lifted it up, and I was going a little bit faster, not by much, but a little.  I also have neglected to tell you how many people passed me.  It's so embaressing...probably about 20 people.  I didn't pass a single person on the kayak leg, that's how awful it was.  It hurt, I wanted out of the boat.  Cornwall beach was approaching!!!!  I was SOOO excited that when I landed my boat I took my life jacket off and sprinted out of that kayak, I didn't want to look at it again.  I took off running up the hill...if you could call it running, more like a limping jog.  I had two horrible side aches, but I did my best and I made it to the finish line .5 mile later!!!!

I was the first female soloist finishing with a time of 3 hours and 39 minutes.  My goal for the race was under 4 hours.  I think I surpassed that goal!  Next year I plan on practicing the kayak and taking 5 minutes off that time, and also not getting lost in the woods and taking atleast 5 minutes off that time.  So my goal for next year: finish in 3 hours 30 minutes. 

ONWARDS to my first cyclocross race in the Women's 1/2 field. 

Okay I don't think I have energy to type up a race report right now.  Check back in a couple of days!  Maybe I will have some pictures of my pain from todays race...it was hard, no matter what category you were in.  I would like to point out Whitney and Chris's race.

Whitney had a stellar performance in the Cat4 womens race.  Today was her best race yet, not just with results, but she looked so strong and was enjoying her race!  She placed 6th in her field and looked like a total star.  She's moving on up in this world!  Chris also did quite well in his race today.  He worked hard as always, unzipped his jersey for a bit of air conditioning and revealed chest hair.  He placed 7th in the Mens3 field.  Great work friends!!!

Two wins is an automatic upgrade

I think the title says it all.



The view at the top of Cleator. 



I would like to first start off with talking about my mt bike ride yesterday.  Whitney and I agreed to meet in Fairhaven to go ride in the Chuckanuts.  The plan?  Up Cleator road to the Ridge Trail, through Hush Hush and back home.  HMMM I was thinking it would be about a 2-2.5 hour ride.  No biggie, I ate a pancake and eggs for breakfast so I figured I would be set for the ride, but brought a Luna bar with me just in case.  I am not sure if you know this or not, but Whitney nor I did, Cleator road is really long.  Oh and it's all up hill.  We did know it was a climb.  After about an approx. 1 hour plus climb up Cleator we made it the Ridge Trail, stopped to look at the view at the top and ate some food.  Last time we road this it was in the summer time.  Now with all the rain the trail was hardly rideable, and neither of us really were in the mood to crash so we were extra cautious.  Well the first part of the trail, prob the first hour, was ride for 2 minutes hike the bike for 5 minutes.  So we were paritially on a hike, with some extra resistance training carrying/pushing our bikes over logs, rocks, and up hills.  It was tough, and really windy.  We eventually made it out of the Ridge Trail and I realized we had been riding for about 2.5 hours and we still had more to go.  I was hungry.  We headed for Hush Hush, which was a very technical, but ride-able trail.  Lots of wet technical roots, I love roots.  Whitney and I were doing really well and hadn't crashed yet (if you ever ride with Whitney and I on our mountain bikes you will know it's never a ride without a crash...it's inevitable).  So we are hitting the end of Hush Hush and are flying down this fun easy non-technical straight decent, when I realize I am headed straight for a tree.  I better turn and slow down, I hardly knicked the tree, but it did managed to push me across the trail right into the other tree, where my saddle nose hooked the tree, sent me flying and my handlebars did a 360.  All was fine, except for the charlie horse on my left thigh...then I looked at my bike and a little piece of my heart broke....well actually my fork lock out broke.  I thought the piece would be at the most $50 to replace...it retails for $110.  I did not crash again that day, we made it home safely and when I got home 4 hours later I shoved food into my face (as I always do when I get home from a ride) showered, then headed up to campus to do a little research.  Did I mention I am trying to finish my Masters?

Todays Race Report:



Dirty Bikes



     We arrived at Beverly Park Elementary around 9 am so Whitney could get ready for her race at 10:15.  We step out of the car and it is wet and cold, but we head down to registration just as the first race of the day is getting started.  This is the hardest part of the day for me, watching others race and knowing I don't race until 1:30.  My nerves and my anxiety kick in pretty early in the day.  My blood pressure is probably through the roof.  The rain only started to rain harder as the morning went on and I was not looking forward to the rain.  Having been born and raised and in the Northwest I know what the weather is like.  If it's raining in the morning, it probably wont be raining in the afternoon.  I was banking on this for my race.  My weather prediction was correct, the rain started to fade around noon and had stopped for the Men's 1/2 race at 12:15.  I start warming up for my race around 12:30 up and down the road around the school, I wasn't going to pre-ride the course because it was a slop fest, pre riding it just wasn't worth it.  I was doing some hard efforts up a hill and it felt HARD.  My legs felt...tired, but I figured they just needed to wake up because I hadn't done anything all morning except walk around, watch others race in the mud, and freak out about what and when I should eat.  I repeatedly went up and down this hill, down the road, around in circles, trying to wake my legs up...I started to slowly feel as if I was warming up.  Then I got bored of riding on the road and warming up so I just headed to the big muddy pit, also known as the race course. 

The announcers started calling the racers to the start to get staged so I headed over to make sure I wouldn't miss my call up.  We stood there for a long time, as I was expecting to.  They started the single speeders, then the 1/2 women, then put some Master men in front of us.  They decided to not be smart and called up the wrong people for the call ups, so I didn't even get my call up!!!  I was sort of bummed, but not really.  The race started, and I realized I wished I could have gotten my call up because I was starting on the WRONG side of the start...it was the swampy section and everyone to my left blew by me.  Oh well, the run up was coming up shortly and that's where I am a little stronger than most.  Going into the run up I was mid pack..probably more towards the front, coming out of the run up I was 3rd.  I passed one girl, I was 2nd, then I caught the next girl after the first set of double barriers.  So I was 1st...I was starting to feel pretty good and some what confident through the mud.  As I was coming down the large down hill and onto the track, and then onto the grass again, I heard one of the women from the Cucina team (who I really like and met awhile ago at a couple of the road races) who was doing registration cheering my name.  I LOVE it when people cheer for me it makes me smile.  So being a little overly excited I hop over the curb without slowing down and completely slid out about 3 seconds later.  I didn't even know it was happening.  It cracked me up.  I couldn't stop laughing, especially when about 5 people passed me.  It was fun having people pass me because it made me work harder to get back to being in the lead.  I slowly started to catch back up to those that passed me (I am glad this was the first lap still, the end of it, but the first still) and by the set of double baricades I caught the women who was sitting in first, and from there it's all history..and a lot of pain.  My first thought when I finished this race...do not do a 4 hour mountain bike ride in the Chuckanuts the day before a cyclocross race. 

I entered the pain cave today....I was pretty deep in the pain cave actually.  It was by far the hardest cross race I have done.  I kept thinking I had a flat tire because it was so hard to pedal/move...then I thought I was so exhuasted that I couldn't lift my bike up over the barriers.  By the end of the race I looked down at my bike and I realized it wasn't me being weak and needing to lift heavier weights, it was that my bike gained 10 pounds.  I have never seen my bike look this dirty

My goal for this Cyclocross season was to upgrade to the Cat 2's by the end of the season.  Looks like next week I will be racing with the 2's and all it took was 2 races!!!!  I am pretty stoked.

What in all the world?!

I had no idea making a blog was so complicated there are way too many things this page is asking me for, and I am so very in decisive. 

For the past few months I have really thought about making a blog so I can write about my racing endeavors.  More or less for me to remember how much pain I put myself in and how much I actually enjoyed it.  That way I can look back on an experience and think to myself "okay that was fun" even though I might haved hated it at the moment.  I know we all experience those thoughts. 

In the past year my athletic performances have really surprised me.  I enjoy being active, any type of outdoor activity is my hobby.  I don't collect small items and I don't spend my time knitting.  I collect bicycles and spend my time riding them.  I have never thought of my self as an "athlete", but more as someone who enjoys being active on a daily basis.  Then last fall I realized I was turning into quite an athlete.  It started with the Victoria Marathon last October, then Cyclocross, then road biking, then mountain biking, THEN soloing the Bellingham Traverse (something I never thought would happen).  Everything just escalated.  So what now?  Now I wish to write about these for myself, and anyone to read.

To sum up the last year:
**Chris, Katie, and I spent 6 hours in the BC ferry line last October waiting to catch a ferry during the Canadian thanksgiving weekend.  We didn't make reservations...OOPS.  BUT we did run quite an amazing marathon.  I surprised myself when we finished in 3 hours and 56 minutes. 

**I bought a cyclocross bike.  Best purchase ever, because next to Chris, Cyclocross is my 2nd love.  He better watchout.  I went and raced my first race here in Bellingham...I won. How?  Not sure, but I crashed a lot.  The following weekend I raced in a Seattle series race at Maris Farms.  That course ate me up like cookie monster does a cookie, but I managed 5th.  The next race...2nd, the following one 1st.  I upgraded to 3's for the last race of the season, and pulled out a 5th place finish.  Went to Collegiate nationals, 5th place.

**I came out strong for the collegiate road season and worked my butt off and earned my Cat. 3 upgrade on the road as well.

**Chris helped me buy a mountaim bike for my birthday.  Went to my first mountain bike race, raced in the sport category got 2nd.  Holy smokes I never knew I had it in me.  The following 2 races I placed 1st, and won the Sport category for the series.  Prob. should have raced expert...but there is always next year.

That brings us up to date...for the most part.  Next time, I will write up a race report about the Bellingham Traverse and my first cyclocross race of the season.  For now it's time to get ready for a mountain bike ride.

Until next time!!