WackaWacka

So there was a race, I bridged some gaps so I didn't get beat as bad as the numbers show and I had a great time and delicious dinner at Ellen's Danish Pancakes. Ya, that's right, I eat breakfast for dinner.

Quote of the weekend: From 4 year old Ryder Freeman between squirting his eyes with a water bottle to get the dust out, to his mom Denise as I came through on lap 2: "Joy doesn't look good at all. How is she going to make it to the finish?!?!"

Oh the love of children. Thanks for thinking of me champ, and us racers never look like we will make it to the finish line.

Quote of the week: And yes, I know it is only Wednesday, but she has it in the bag: "Don't take this the wrong way, but I think it would be crazy to have you as my teacher." Well thank you, and yes it would be. Pua Sawiki pre Tuesday night National Championships.

Photo of the weekend, courtesy Leslie Hart...

No I was not racing alone, it just looks like it. And yes, the dead grass is the same color, and perhaps the same texture, as my hair.

I almost forgot.
Got a bit of a plug at Training Peaks! Woohoo!

Aw Shucks...

I may actually do a race report. But that would get Foist all bent. At least I don't have a cold or Poison Oak for that matter, and the only person I can logically blame for my ill-fated attempt at racing is myself. So, I think I am in the clear.

Sea Otter is like a black hole. It's like being in a vortex for three days. Nothing outside of the Otter exists and if it does, it really doesn't matter. It's just plain weird. I haven't been to The Void for about 3-4 years for reasons before mentioned and really, it just dredges up a lot of, shall we say, "memories."

The drive there was uneventful, although pulling into the venue, 4 bikes on the car, 4 people, and a LOAD of stuff, we were asked: "Are you carpooling??" Um....ok...

Shelli and Jesse kept me laughing with their "pronunciation" of Cannery vs Cannery Row...bird or can? Or Carmel By the Sea, but what about Caramel? It all comes down to semantics guys...

On Sunday I got hot. Bottom line. I was rollin' with my homies about mid-pack which i was stoked with considering...well life. We had a train going with Maureen and Sarah two chicks I have ridden with a lot and we were having a blast! Then I got the chilly bumps on my arms, shakes, blurry vision and I was cold. Weird. Because it was high 90's and sweltering.

I knew the day was going to be interesting when I saw my FAVORITE, all-time hero Wendy Simms pull to the side of the trail in full on vomit mode. I stopped for a brief moment to make sure she could get out ok and wished her the best...

I decided to "DNF" while riding through a forested single track. Usually these are places of refuge from the sun and heat. Not this one. All I wanted to do was get out of there! It felt like I was being suffocated by the oxygen from the plants. Heavy, HOT, thick air. It was disgusting.

It was also in this Void within the Vortex that I started thinking about 8am Monday morning and facing a freshman class of Health students and having to admit to them I had succumbed to Heat Exhaustion. What a hypocrite! I preach to them daily about hydration, heat safety, taking care of your body and being able to LISTEN TO WHAT IT IS SAYING!! So I bucked up and listened. The body said NO!

One small caveat on this course. If you DNF, you might as well ride your bike out, if you aren't too broken to do so. On my pilgrimage back to the raceway, I found a casualty. So odd. A bike on the side of the road. I got closer. Two feet laying prostrate on the ground. It seemed as if the racer had been caught under the house that squished the Wicked Witch of the West. I stopped and saw Sarah Piccolo completely down for the count. She was talking wacky talk, covered with sweet and salt and dirt. I quickly told her to take her helmet and gloves off and I pilfered as much water and fluids from nearby water bottles. While I did that she took the opportunity to continue puking and dry heaving into the weeds. Help arrived after about 10 minutes, just in time for Danae York to ride through.

I jumped at the opportunity to have someone to pedal home with. We talked about heat, the rancid water I had put in my bottle from random bottle on the trail, poison oak, college boys, life at CU Boulder where she is at school, and the balance of life. Super cool girl. I was glad to ride with her!

Hopefully Wendy, Sarah, Krista, the 52 men that abandoned their race, and all the racers that probably should have abandoned the race, are recovering well. The sun can be quite the life-sucker.

Mr. Freeman made an excellent post about the weekend, just the way things go sometimes!!

Sunny Days!!

Sea Otter - working on our infamous "farmers tans" as my students call them!! Hot, hot hot!!!

Highlight of the weekend: Showing Jude and a side kick from Magura my rotor brand. They were VERY impressed.

Oh, let's have another highlight: Seeing the Lombard family by the bouce house!!! It has been over 5 years!!

And, well, there were a lot of highlights!! Reports in some semblance to come...

but this is what i was doing at 10 pm the night before heading to the Otter:

Kickin' it crazy style with Paige, my wanna-be-step-sister at the spring formal thingy...check out the chocolate fountain behind us...

Oh, and some of you may not have known (or cared) that i changed my fabulous hair color!!

Next steps...

Baby steps never hurt anyone! But this weekend Shelli and I and half of the rest of the cycling world are heading to Sea Otter...we are trying to shed to cobwebs of sadness...to ride another day...

Yesterdays Memorial was really cool. All were requested to wear cycling jerseys in remembrance of Thom. Some were skeptical, but when we rolled into the lot and saw it littered with variations of orange, i knew i just had to wear mine!!

It was amazing to reconnect with people I havent seen in a chunk of years and to see what a common bond we all have!!!

This picture just makes me LAUGH!!! Very descriptive of the road that has been traveled, oh so much as changed since this Fontana National...Thom was always ready at the finish. Even has a spare TIRE...and man, that was a lot of hair!!!

Happy trails this weekend! Good luck to all...

NOT what I wanted to post about today...

The stories of Costa Rica and the Jungle will have to wait. Maybe even wait long enough to become legands...

Early Saturday morning, we lost a great friend. Thom Blaine, leader/manager/racer/deal maker for Team Jose Ole passed away in a horrible accident.

Thom is talking to Bev from Rim Nordic behind Eli...

If you race in Southern California, you have seen Thom. Probably because he wore bright orange or yellow and was everywhere! He may have even give you some Chimichangas or coupons for free Mexi-Melts. But he was more likely to have handed you a flawless bottle feed in even the most remote of feed zones. He was a friend of every racer. A supporter of each and every athlete.

Ben, Ed, me, Jan, and Thom...Big Bear Fall Classic...

Although I had stepped away from Jose Ole, Thom remained a "family member" to me, an Uncle. At Fontana he helped me get some stuff lined out before the start and stuck around to give me my bottle feeds.

When I received the call yesterday I was crushed. Thom was a man who saw something in me and made it happen. His goal for the area was to bring mountain biking alive!! To give athletes like myself the Golden Ticket and to remove most if not all, obsticles that stood in our way. He introduced both Shelli and I to racing here in SoCal, a life-turn that otherwise, may have never taken place. He looked at me one day and said, I think you can become something and I want to help you realize your dreams. That happens like once in a lifetime.

Ben, Me, Carolyn and Thom...they went WAY out of their way to support and watch me race...in NORTH CAROLINA.....

This loss leaves me completely upset and angry and hurt. A man who would do anything for his wife and two daughters, who loved the sport of Mountain Biking soooo much that he began his own team and backed it with his heart and soul.

It seems like these things just keep coming. It makes me scrape the frosting off - all those lame emotions where you get offended my this or that, feel butt hurt about how someone treated or didn't treat you - and get down to the basics of solid relationships. I am forced to remember to surround myself with people of value and who value me. To guard my tongue and my emotions as I interact with any and everyone.

Costa Rica taught me Pura Vida - as Todd Park translated: Pure Life - Living the life yo!

Live EVERY DAY like you mean it...with a purpose...and with a ton of LOVE...

Shelli and I went out riding today in our OLDEST and ORANGEST Jose Ole clothes!! We started wearing them 5 years ago and they are still just as comfy! we even timed it right to be at Stell when the Old Guys finished their ride...funny thing, they all had their Jose Ole stuff on too...

And of course, go ride your bike.

Wait for it....wait for it....

Latent onset giardia that is.

We all drank the water whether we knew it or not. And we rode through cow pastures. And we have predicted that by the time the gun goes off at Sea Otter, Someone will have giardia.

But until then, we are all safe and sound and healthy!!!

it took a lot of this:

To slog through miles of this:

This is the hottest i have ever been on the bike, and in the most humid of conditions. Never mind the fog that cut visibility down to mere feet. I think my face tells it all...

It will be difficult to digest all that went down between Wednesday and Monday, and even more of a task to spit it out for the blog. But i do know that Pura Vida! Is the most genious country slogan I have ever come across and that cycling as I know it has taken on an entirely new meaning.

The trip and the experience were amazing!

If it were so, I would be on Zoloft...

I was recently asked, by a fellow bike racer, if my self-worth was based on my race results and test results. Of course I laughed and said, well, if that were the case, I would definately be on Zoloft...

But its all a big process. The races have come and gone and its just the beginning of an amazing season. Although i haven't even looked at the results from Sunday, I have been told I am either not on them, or I don't have a time. Thats because i got pulled. That's right. Bottom 20% of the racers. Solid.

But...its all good. I am above my fighting weight, and I know why.
I am behind the curve, and I know the answer to this too.
I suffered a collaboration of issues that caused my brain to be elsewhere. My bad...
I enduced three yard-sale crashes saturday that have left me with a bruised rib or two, a left knee that is half again as big as it should be, a bum wrist and a moderately bad attitude.

But...I love to race my bike. I love the community, and if i werent 3 hours out from "getting up" and going to the airport, I would tell you more and maybe even drop some pics and links up in here!!

To say the least, Steve Marshal saved my race. I was "not in a good place" and having suspect thoughts coming through the feed zone. Home boy was running beside me, cheering and yelling...in a speedo. I threw up a high five and went out on the next lap. That high five probably put me the 45 seconds back that cost me the last lap...But OH so worth it...

At the top of a nasty climb, i saw sponsor Leo from Pass PT standing at the top grinning. You gotta do the man proud...

I got to see my friends race and throw down and get dusty and do really bad and not feel good about the day or feel completely amped about their performance.

Now its time for all of us to collect, and go to the next step.
Mine is in Costa Rica, the others seem to be heading down to Sagebrush!
Happy trails my friends, and remember we ride because we love the process, and the people!

I am not sure if daily race updates will be posted, but if you are super bored and are wondering my fate in the jungle...check here...
http://www.retodelosvolcanes.com/english/index.cfm?subpage=abouttherace