July 16, 2007

My first REAL mountain bike race. Ayshia and Scott were there to see me off. All of the beginner women's age groups started together at the base of the mountain, around 1:30pm. I was so nervous on the drive up to Winter Park, but when I got to the start line, I was frustrated because I was in the back of the pack, but I felt strangely calm. We took off down the road where it turned to kind of a double track trail before turning to single track. It went down gradually for a ways until it turned and started to climb. I felt pretty good, but let myself slow down when I came up to someone. I passed a lady, who passed me, and I didn't want to pass her again, so I rode right behind her for a while. Not smart in a race, but give me a break-it's my first one! It's a learning experience, right?

I passed Marni whose chain had fallen off. I felt so bad, I wanted to stop, but knew I would be useless. I checked to make sure she was ok and had to pedal on.

We came up to a steep, rooty turn. The lady in front of me stopped and hiked. So I did. Then when I got over it, I was trying to clip back in and something went wrong. I ended up on the ground, scraping a tree on the way down. I was passed then, but I didn't care. I was having fun!
It started raining on the climb up and it was such a relief-the loud thunder made me keep pushing harder. The climb up was tough, but the ride down was all worth it. My category was pretty spread out during the climb (and I did pass the lady on the service road) so it made going down a lot of fun.

Seeing Ayshia and Scott at the bottom was so awesome! She usually can't go with us because we are both racing, but Scott wanted a day of rest since he wasn't feeling well and was nice enough to hang out with her while I rode. What a guy!

Hopefully, this is just my first of many mountain bike races to come. I learned a lot from just this one and I am very excited about the next one. And since Ayshia has learned to ride her bike, I'm very excited to get her out on the trails!

Winter Park #1 Hill Climb

Not sure how, but I successfully completed my second hill climb and my first mountain bike race! Marni, Michelle and I all raced in the beginner women's 20-29 category. We started at about 11:00, and it was already warm out. It was a long, 5.3 miles, of uphill climbing up the side of Mary Jane. I almost gave up in the first mile; it was so steep and so demoralizing that I never thought I was going to make it. I was ready to just turn around and wait at the car for everyone else. But then it ever-so-slightly flattened out for a little bit and I was able to look down this gorgeous valley surrounded by pines and evergreens and watch the butterflies. I remember thinking that as much as the mountain was kicking my butt, there were much worse places on earth that I could be at that moment...

So trudged on...

I borrowed Scott's GPS and was able to track my progress (or lack thereof), which helped immensely. It was really nice to have actually, it reminded me of him and I was REALLY looking forward to seeing him at the top.

I realized I'm not meant for the competitive stuff. I felt really bad passing people. I made eye contact with a lady who was hiking down and she simply said 'you go, girl!' and I smiled and kept pedaling. As I rode higher, more people were heading down, hollering out "You're almost there! Keep it up! Doing great!" I loved "Just one more turn" from some guy bombing down the steeping hill towards the end.

I'll never forget that turn either. I had been chugging uphill, pedaling pretty much nonstop, cursing the mountain (or was it Scott??) for at least half of it, for over an hour. I hurt, I smelled, I was hungry. I came around that last turn and to get to the top we had to climb a very steep, rocky section, but after that it was over. Scott and the whole group was at the top and they made it possible to finish. They were cheering and squeaking their bike buddies and somehow I made it up that last terrible part. I yelled 'I love you guys!' as I passed but it probably came out all garbled at that point.

Having Scott run with me into the gate and then be there to hug when I was done as I was sweaty and shaky and dizzy was one of those moments in life that will never leave me. The only other climb I had done before was up Deer Creek Canyon just a week or two earlier. I hated it. I swore I'd never do the hill climb. But Scott had faith in me-way more than I had in myself-that I could do it. I tried, and I did it.

More amazing was the rest of our group-Bill won the Clydesdale category and Michelle won the beginner women’s! Congratulations to both of them!

My boyfriend did wonderful-he got out there, despite not feeling well, and kicked that mountains butt! I am so proud of him!

I remember climbing up thinking that I was never going to do this again! But, looking back, it is quite an accomplishment and it felt great when we were done!

June 6, 2007

SD and I decided to go out of town to celebrate our one year of dating. We headed out to Fruita late Wedesday night with plans to camp. However, after a long day at work, close to five hours of driving in the dark, we decided that rather than looking for a site and trying to set up camp in the dark we would just crash in a hotel in town. In the morning, we met up with Piglet, found a site and headed for the Kokopelli trail. We started on Rustlers Loop. It wasn't too hot yet, we were the only ones riding the trail and it was a lot of fun. That is until I heard Piglet shout "oh no!" from behind me.

I stop and turn around to her off her bike with her seat pointing straight up to the sky! Her seat post was busted and we couldn't fix it on the trail so the poor girl had to finish the loop with no seat! (Pictures coming soon!) We headed back to town to get it fixed and grab lunch and headed back out to ride Horsetheif Bench.

We took Mary's Loop to the Horsethief Bench Trail. It was an awesome ride. We were pretty much the only ones back there, blasting around in the desert with the lizards and the heat and the majestic Colorado River running below us. It's a nice cruiser trail with a few technical spots. I sometimes have to remind myself not to get frustrated when the other people I am with can bomb up and down pretty hairy stuff on their nice fancy bikes and I can't always do the same on my less fancy one. I love my bike Trek, but I sometimes feel it's holding me back a little. It was a lot of fun just the same. Fun but very hot.

Friday we rode around the campsite, Joe's Ridge and Kessler's Trail, then we packed up camp and rode Mary's Loop. This loop was a lot of fun also, with the dried river beds and everything. But again it was very hot. I don't think the heat has ever bothered me as much as it did on that ride, therefore, I don't think I have ever whined so much on a ride. I felt kinda bad for them putting up with me. Piglet headed home afterwards and SD and I headed to Grand Junction, stopping in Fruita for lunch again.

We stayed at a cute B&B called The Gallery and our hosts Karen and Damian were wonderful. We had great breakfasts in the morning and Damian gave us a tour of his pottery studio. We cleaned up and headed out to see our friend Plesko off on another one of his crazy adventures. Only this time he might have reached a peak in the craziness scale. He set out on a mountain bike race that covered close to 400 miles! INSANE! Mrs. Plesko was also of course there to see him off. Read more about his adventure at slipangles.blogspot.com. We wished him luck and watched him ride away.

We decided to check out the downtown scene for dinner and found a delicious italian restaraunt there. SD and I were exhuasted so just went back to our room for the night. In the morning, we packed up a day pack and head to Catfish Canoe and rented a Duckie (inflatable kayak). The owner, Henry, was a nice fellow and the setup was awesome. We rented the boat, he drove us to our put-in in Palisade and picked us up at our put-out, in Grand Junction. The Colorado River was flowing high enough that we pretty much just floated the entire 16 miles. There was one Class III, probably, at the confluence of the Colorado and Gunnison rivers that we hit which was exciting, but besides that it was a very peaceful, relaxing day of floating and eating cherries and looking out for Blue Herons.

I gave SD his gift that night. I put together photographs of some of the adventures we have been on together in the last year, framed them for him to hang on his yet-to -be-painted bedroom wall. The next morning he gave me a beautiful set of hand crafted glasses made by Damian, our host at the Gallery, to remind me of our wonderful weekend together.

Before heading home on Sunday we took a partial tour of the wineries in Palisade. This was an awesome experience. Most of the let you try as many different wines as you'd like-for nothing! We got a delicious cherry wine and yummy, mild mead from the meadery. We also stopped at a few of the quaint fruit stands, though not much was available yet.

We had a wonderful time, and although I missed A very much while we were gone and I always have her to look forward to coming home to, there's still a bittersweetness about the end of a fabulous weekend, time passing, and having to get back to reality...