They say things come in sets of 3

So when will be my 3rd?  Nationals was race #1 of crap, and now race #2 of crap just passed by.  I need to race again before the fall so I can get my 3rd mishap out of the way before cyclocross season.

On Thursday Chris and I, once again packed the car with the bikes and our stuff for yet again, another race.  This time we drove to Suncadia Resort in Roslyn, WA.  Raleigh was hosting a cyclocross race out there.  The top 3 Elite men and women where given cash prizes of $1500, $500, and $250.  Who wouldn't want that kind of money?  The top amatuer Elite man and women where offered a "pro contract" with Raleigh to race the Cross in the Dark series.  They where also given 2 Raleigh cyclocross bikes, with their entry fees paid for, and travel stipe-end.  Not to shabby right?  I didn't say it allowed because I didn't want to get my hopes up, but I really did want that contract.  How cool would that be?  Once I saw the list of registered riders, I wasn't really sure it would be something I could claim.  So I just told myself race for fun, lets see how you stack up to the other ladies you will be racing agianst in the NW.  If anything it will be a tough hard workout, see what cross skills I need to work on, etc. 

At the start of the race I was feeling pretty good, my start wasn't too shabby either.  For the first half lap I was sitting in 6th, and moving on up!  I was pretty sure I was going to get past some of those ladies, I just needed my cotton mouth to go away!!  As I was riding down a small decent just after the pits on the very first lap, fate struck and I my rear wheel was flat.  I was somewhat confused for a moment...do I run the entire lap to the pits?  Do I ride on my flat wheel?  I tried both, and then I realized it wasn't going to happen.  The course was so dry and fast that by the time I would have reached the pits, I would have been lapped.  It just wasn't something I wanted to do, so I pulled out.  I wanted to whine for a little bit.  So that's just what I did.  I pouted for a little bit, until I had to perk myself up and give myself a mental talk "at least you didn't pay for the race".  That's right, I didn't pay to race, it was a free entry.  So instead I test rode a Raleigh bike, that was pretty fun!  The bike had SRAM on it, and it convinced me to convert from Shimano to SRAM.  I think I'm going to go for it. 

Once I got over pouting over the fact that my race was over in half a lap, I heard there was a bike I could pedal that would blend a margarita for me (courtsy of Cyclops)!  So instead of worrying about my half lap race, I drank tequila while the Elite men raced and had a good time heckling Chris.  Love you Boyfriend.

This race really teased me, and it has me mentally ready to race cross, but it's July!!!!  I have nearly 2 full months before cross season.  I am so sad!  I have a lot goals for myself in the coming season.  I want to win, I want my Cat1 upgrade, I want to stand out, I want to be fast, and skilled.  Every race I do, I do it so it makes me stronger in CX.  Every time I suffer through a road race I do it for CX (and a little bit for me), any time a scary section in a mountain bike race comes, I try it for CX.  I race for 4 straight months to get me fast and in shape for CX.  I also race road and mountain because I like it, but I believe it helps me.  Road gives me the fitness, mountain gives me the handling skills, and CX gives me the love of my friends every Sunday. 

I just love Cyclocross, there's no other way to put it.  I love the sport, I love the spectators, I love my team, I love the scene.  With the summer we have been having, Fall just might be my favorite season these days (since I get to race CX).

SEPTEMBER GET HERE!!!!!!
(Okay maybe not)

Chris and I are officially on vacation for 2 weeks.  We are headed up to Vancouver Island to my families beach house in Comox.  I absolutely love it up there.  I was named after the town Courtenay, and there is awesme mountain biking in Cumberland (part of the Comox Valley).  We will probably do lots of mountain biking and road biking, along with hanging out on the beach and at the river.  I love vacation.

A disappointing way to end a fantastic season

I hate the year of the La Nina, we can't even have a summer!!!

So I had to escape to Sun Valley, ID for some Mountain Bike Nationals and oh what fun did I have!  Sun Valley is not close.  Chris, Whitney, and I packed the car up on Tuesday morning and we headed to Sun Valley.  We didn't get in until 2:30am Wednesday morning, it was a long long long drive.  Thank goodness Idaho has a speed limit of 75mph.   I was able to get us some host housing from someone who used to work at the gym, it was so genorous of him (thanks Randy)!  He had the sweetest little dog named Kaiya, and I am not a dog person, but she was just so stinken' cute!  I should have taken a picture of her. 

If you have been following my blog you know that I have been racing in the Open women catgeory.  I originally wanted to race in this category for the challenge and the pay!  As it turned out, it is the category I should be racing in for our local races.  Which tells me that at a sanctioned race I should probably be a Cat 1 rider.  Unfortunately in WA we do not have sanctioned mountain bike races, with the exception of the 1 national qualifer race we had this year.  I raced in the Cat 2 race because that's my official category on my licence.  So at nationals I had to race in the Cat 2 race as well, which I wasn't too stoked about, but I did it so I could get my official Cat 1 upgrade.



Pros are awesome.  Georgia Gould hustling through the rock garden



Wednesday afternoon we pre-rode the amature race course, and it was SOOO hard!  The course was set up on Baldy Mountain (one of the ski mountains there) and we were around 6,000 ft elevation.  Our course started with 2 prologue loops which took about 5 minutes or less.  You started up a steep steep ski run and turned left into the start of a single track decent and down and over to the main staging area, over a fly over, and onto the rock garden and then back up the prologue or to the main large loop.  The main loop of the course took you through a steep single track climb with loose dirt, sand, and rocks.  Along the climb there were tough roots to get up and over at the top of the steep climbs, they were challenging!  I was breathing really hard, but I was enjoying the toughness of the course, it suited me well.  Once at the top of the single track there was a fire road climb, before decending down some fire road and onto the long single track decent.  The decent was entertaining, but the switchbacks where really loose!  The decent wasn't technical at all, just very very loose and marbly.  When we finished the loop, I thought to myself, this wont be too bad tomorrow, it might be a cluster ***k the first time through the prologue loops, but I think it will be okay. 

I was wrong.

Do you ever wake up and you just aren't ready to race?  Or your nerves are so twisted in knots that you can barely function?  I felt a lot of pressure that day.  Everyone I ran into kept saying to me "oh you're going to smash the field, and you're going to win, blah blah blah".  It made me really nervous, and when I look around at people all dressed up in their spandex, I get intimadated, everyone looks so freakin' fast.  When I got to the race I looked at the start list, and my jaw dropped.  They where starting each category 30 seconds apart, there where roughly 10 categories, with about 200 people total.  I got to go 2nd to last.  This wasn't good. 

Chris and I warmed up and went to staging.  My group slowly crawled forward as the other racers where starting, and then it was our turn, and I got the hole shot!  I was the first one up the hill, and I wasn't even working at full capacity, so I just told myseld, hold steady and you will win.  Then, I got to the first set of single track and I had to get off my bike and wait in line.  There was probably about 10 men in front of me waiting to enter the single track.  So all that work I put into climbing the hill, didn't get me any further away from the women in my field.  Once I hit the rock garden there where a couple of men in front of me but I was able to maneuver my way around them and get through it unscathed and on my bike.  2nd prologue lap up the hill and into the single track and the line to enter was even longer (how is that possible?).  So I got off my bike and I waited in line for the 2nd time in 10 or less minutes.  It was stupid.  I managed to pull away from the women on the decent and this time through the rock garden there where lots of men in my way who didn't know how to ride their bikes.  They got in my way and forced me to get off my bike and run with the damn thing (can you tell I'm getting fired up writing this?).  I thought to myself, this is not a cross race this bike is heavy, I don't like this.  I entered the single track as the first women, and I was feeling SO good!  Then about 3 minutes into the single track all of my hopes and dreams where crushed when I saw the line of 30 plus people WALKING their bikes up the trail.  My first thoughts where...okay this happens, it wont be long.  But then it really was a long time, people where seriously NOT riding anything, and most of the stuff was ridable.  I was so angry, but then I got even more angry when all of the sudden I heard female voices behind me.  Turns out they where pushing men out of the way to get further up the walking train.  That didn't make me happy, and nor did it make the man that was directly behind me happy.  THeir conversation went something like this:

Man: What are you doing?  I am not letting you by me

Females: We want to race with the women

Man: Uh the race leader is right in front of me, you ARE racing with the women.  She has been walking behind all these people too, wait your turn. 

Females: Let us by, you aren't even racing

Me (at this point I am incredibly angry): I have been patiently waiting behind all these people, if you really want first place THAT bad come up here and get it.

Females procede to push by the man, the man then pushes one of the females into the hill side and she falls down.  That makes me happy because she was having poor sportsmanship. 

75% up the hill and people finally start riding their bikes and I don't see the women again, because THEY CAN'T CLIMB!   I am pretty sure if people would have not been dumb and walked their bikes, or if they would have gotten out of my way I would have rocked that course.  But instead I had to push my bike up the fun stuff because too many people didn't know how to ride.  Once I was finally on my bike and pedaling I caught even more men, and they wouldn't let me by them.  I would ask and they would say no, it made me even more mad.  So I would ride next to them on the hill side to get by.  Then I hit the fire road climb and I was angry and not tired.  Then I hit the decent and was still angry and bitter.  I couldn't find an ounce of positive in me.  On the last switch back of the course I pulled over to let a man go that was behind me, and turns out a really fast women on the downhill whizzed on by as well.  OOPS.  I shouldn't have been so nice.  At that point though, I didn't even care.   When I finished I don't think I was even sweaty, I wasn't even tired.  I went on another ride and a run later that day. 

 I finished the race in 1 hour and 3 minutes and 59 seconds.  Their estimated time was 1 hour and 30-45 minutes.   I paid $63.50 to hike my bike up Baldy Mountain.  Dear USA Cycling, I WANT MY MONEY BACK!  That race was the most poorly planned out race I have ever participated in.  I am so dissapointed with the way the lower categories where treated.  I put in for my Category 1 upgrade today, so I should be able to race in the ACTUAL catgeory I belong in, that is if I decide to go back next year. 

Chris managed to pull off a first place finish in his race.  He was the first category to go off so he had a very different race experience than I did.  He didn't have to hike his bike up the mountain because there was no one in front of him, except for one rider!  I was jealous of him.  The climb would have been such a feat to do...if only I could have experienced it during the race. 



Chris on the podium



On a really positive note Sun Valley has awesome riding and weather.  The day after the race Chris, Whitney, and I rode around the outside perimeter of Baldy Mountain.  We went up Cold Springs and down Warm Springs, for about a 3 hour beautiful ride!  The decent down Warm Springs was incredible, you hardly had to use your brakes, the trail flowed so well.  Here are some pictures:



Us three at the intersection of Cold Springs and Warm Springs



Myself and the mountains of Sun Valley



 On Sunday Chris raced the Super D race.  This race is a cross country downhill event, with some hills interspersed to prevent people from racing on straight downhill bikes.  This particular course had the riders take the Gondola to the top of the mountain, immediatly start with an uphill half mile climb and then they hit the blazing fast sketchy marbly decent.  This picture is of Chris coming down the rock waterfall.  Of course, he didn't take the right line and almost crashed hard core, then he almost ran into course tape and spectators.  It gave the spectators something aww at. 

There you have it, our weekend of racing and riding packed into one long blog post.  On Thursday Chris and I head back over the mountains to Suncadia for the summer cyclocross race.  This should be a good race to see how much I need to train for the fall.  I am giving myself some high ambitions for this coming cross season so I can't wait to see what I need to work on. 

It's A Love Story

4 friggin' years?!!!!?!?!!!!

Tell me 5 years ago that in 2011 I would be dating someone for 4 years I would have chuckled to myself. 

Lets rewind my life:  2000 and something to 2007...I can get easily distracted and very bored.  Date someone, just one person?  I don't know.  I might be interested in you, but not for long.  I had my fun, you're done.  Please don't call me anymore.  Can I ignore you now?  Go away.  Why are you mad at me?  Well, I'm sorry I don't want to date you.  Yes, I would love to go to dinner with you, but only one time. 

I had some good times, actually great times.  I loved college, every year of it.  I lived the life I wanted to live, I made the best friends a girl could ask for and found someone who I could actually love.  I never thought I would be able to "date" someone for longer than a couple months.  I got bored easily, lost interest quickly.  Someone once told me I was heartless.  I just think it's because I wasn't interested, don't get mad at me because of you. 

In April of 2007 I spotted Chris at one of the Western's Cycling Team race weekends.  I thought he looked pretty cute, we chatted briefly.  Once I got home from the weekend I preceded to befriend/stalk him on facebook.  It was fun, we saw each other a couple of other weekends before the season ended, I would send him messages on facebook, write on his wall, and hope for the day he would try to hang out with me.  He never once hinted at trying to hang out, I didn't understand why, I was a cool girl, I mean come on!  So I would invite him to do things, he never accepted.  This went on for a couple of months.  I didn't understand, so one day when my friend Marielle and I were running I finally told her "I give up!" he's not interested, I have been so friendly and open and he just doesn't care. 

Then one day I got a message on facebook asking if I wanted to hang out, you betcha!  From there, it's history, I lured him in and he hasn't been able to escape since.  Maybe it's because he made me do all the chasing that I fell for him, or it's because he's pretty cute and nice.  I'm not sure, but I don't think I could have asked for a better boyfriend.  The first day we decided to make it "official" I sent out a text to my friends and it said something on the lines of "WTF I think I have a BF".  That first summer I wasn't sure it was going to last, if history repeats its self he wouldn't make it past August.  I did a brave thing that summer.....after having only been dating for a week or two I invited him to my family's beach house in Canada, he kindly accepted. 

Sometimes I still think, holy smokes how has it already been 4 years, that's such a long time, how did this happen??!!  But I am grateful for each and every day of those 4 years.  This last weekend we celebrated our time together in Winthrop doing what we love to do (or what I love to do) BIKING!!!  Instead of writing about everything I will leave you with some pictures.

At the Washington Pass look out on the way over to Winthrop.  It was really cold on the top of the pass!

Holy crap that's a steep hill, I can't believe I ride that!

The anniversary gift for him.  Every year I make him something special

Trying to have my phone find a GPS signal so I can clock our ride up to Washington Pass.  My phone never did pick up the GPS

Myself at the top.  I almost beat Chris up the hill, but he worked a litle harder than I did, so he won.

For winning I took his picture

Two good looking people just hanging out

Bear mountain, right after Chris landed where the sun doesn't shine

We tried to ride this loop called "Figure 8" so we made an 8.  We were excited to almost be at our downhill trail.  To our surprise the trail was covered in dead trees and misquitos, so we had to decend on the road. 

For our 4 year we went out to dinner and ate some ice cream.  I love ice cream.

Sunset plus us

On our 4 year day we rode our mountain bikes TWICE!  This is on Black Bear around The Sun Mountain Lodge

Getting dressed for our second ride up Buck Mountain. 

 

I took this picture in honor of my hooha.  I slid out on part of the trail and hit my hooha on my tob tube.  It's still bruised.  

 There you have it.  Our weekend fun found in a couple of photographs.  Next trip coming up is Sun Valley, Idaho for moutain bike nationals!!!  YYYAAAAYYY!!!  We are really looking forward to some time off work, some bike racing, and SUNSHINE!!

Here we are through the years:

Day 1: July 4th 2007

Lake Padden Bellingham, WA

 Year 1: July 4th 2008

Look out at Galbraith watching the fireworks

 Year 2: July 4th 2009

Whistler, BC

 Year 3: July 4th, 2010

Ride up Starvation Mountain.  Winthrop, WA

 Year 4: July 4th 2011

Buck Mountain, Winthrop, WA

Entering Twisp: A Public Shower Community

Chris and I headed over the beautiful North Cascades Highway (Highway 20) on Friday June 24th to race the Indie Series 3rd race of the Mountain Bike Series over at the Loup Loup Ski Bowl.  The race was put on by Joe Brown of Methow Cycle and Sport (the local bike shop), and it was a fabulous race.  I might be 1 of 50 that say it was fun, but none the less I had a good time and was able to put some strategy into my racing. 



Lots of snow at the top of Washington Pass



As Chris and I drove through Winthrop and into Twisp I saw the sign that stated "Entering Twisp" below the sign there was another one that stated "A Public Shower Community".  I read these aloud in the car and Chris replied with "Wow that makes it sound like all the people shower together" I said "Huh, yeah it does, I hear they have great public coin-operated showers, I wonder where they are".  We continued on after a little laugh of the silly sign.



Staying warm and hiding from the misquitos



Once at the Loup Loup campground we quickly got dressed, dodging the millions of misquitos and went to pre-ride a small portion of the course.  The course is roughly 13 miles with about 2000ft elevation gain per lap.  We were not going to pre-ride the entire course, so we started up the climb and rode to the top of the fire road before the single track climbing began, then we turned around and bombed back to the campsite to dodge more misquitos and dress in warm clothes since it was cold (because we were on top of a mountain).  We met Kristen there too!

The next day was race day!  Wahoo!  A note about this course: last year I raced in the sport category and we only did 1 lap, and I was SOO thankful.  It took me approx. 1 hour and 27 minutes and it was the hardest mountain bike race I had done.  This year I raced in the open category and we were doing 2 laps.  At the start of the race there were 4 open women who lined up.  Once the "go" was said we took off and into the climb we went.  Now, as you know from my previous posts regarding cyclocross I do not start well.  So per usual I ended up 3rd person back, this was going to be a long race so I knew I needed to not go 105% at the gun.  For the first 3/4 of the climb up it was myself and a women from Zuster (?) Cycling, then she fell back a little, and it was just me climbing my way up the tight steep switch backs.  I was so proud of myself because this year I rode all of them, last year I could barely ride any part of that trail. 

Once on the decent I was having a blast, I could ride all the rocky sections I couldn't ride last year, and was just blowing by everything.  Then the first section of a long fire road came up and I decided to take it down a notch and not waste any energy (I did have a 2nd lap after all), that's when another women came up behind me and blew by me.  I thought to myself, well I can't let her go, so I picked it up a bit and stuck with her.  Once it started climbing again I was able to get by her and put some more time between her and myself.  The next decent on the fire road came and she BLEW by me again.  Going into the 2nd lap I was about 5 seconds back from her, but I wasn't really worried since I realized I could climb faster than she could.

I caught up to her and was able to pass her on the climb and knew that I needed to go just a tincy bit faster than her so I could put as much time between myself and her, and on the fire roads I needed to push myself so she wouldn't catch me.  I looked at the 2nd lap more as a cross race than a mountain bike race.  45 minutes of pure hard intensity to put as much time on her.  I crossed the finish line in first place with a time of 2 hours 37 minutes and 51 seconds which was about 3.5 minutes ahead of 2nd place.  I was pretty stoked to say the least.  I only came in 5 minutes behind Chris, who said he didn't have a very good race.  Poor Boyfriend.



The gang at the rewards



The tallest podium steps I have ever seen



 The following day Kristen, Whitney, Logan and I rode Buck Mountain.  One of my most favorite rides in the Methow.  It's about a 25 minute climb up a gravel road to the single track, and from there it's 1 hour plus a little of all swoopy downhill and uphill single track.  The funniest part about this trail is for a some time they allow free range cows in the area, so watch out for cow poop!

An awesome view to some of the downhill and lower buck trail



Logan and a cow ready to charge, protecting her babies, lucky for us once we got off our bikes they scurried away

 

Awesome views from Buck Mountain

And to put an end to my shower story.  Once Chris and I drove down Loup Loup Pass and back through Twisp I was looking forward to seeing the shower sign again, only to my amazement did I discover the sign actually said:

"Welcome to Twisp, a Public POWER Community"

I like my version better.