Well exactly one week from now, I hope that Dave and I will have two stages successfully behind us. Our training is done so it was time for one last "tune-up" race before the big show next week. Unfortunately the usual racing crew (Dave, Andy Aaron, Jeff) were not able to make the trip up to Winthrop, WA. So Amy and I packed the car and set off ourselves to enjoy some of the best riding Western Washington has to offer (actually all of Washington for that matter). I hoped to reach back to my "roots" of racing this weekend--returning to a time of sleeping in my car at a campground the night before a race and just enjoying the scene without worrying about results. However, with the Amy in the mix (no wife(ves) or girlfriends during my "roots" days), we decided to still camp out but treat ourselves to the luxury of tent. Amy packed all our gear and we set off Friday afternoon for the little mountain town of Winthrop. We arrived at the Twin Lakes campground after dark and found our spot directly on the lake. I could already envision myself peaking out of the tent to watch the morning sun rise above the mountains to the east (directly across the lake). However, any such magical moments were broken by the harsh reality of the fact that a tent is absolutely worthless without poles. (Of course I am not pointing any fingers here, just merely making an observation). Thus, we really were returning to the days of sleeping in the back of the rig pre-race. Not sure what it was (perhaps the fumes from my chain lube), but the two nights we spent in the in the Jeep incited the most vivid, bizarre, random and violent dreams I can remember in a long time (usually my dreams consist of my boss telling that I've missed some important deadline-seriously. How lame is that?). The last thing I remember this morning before waking was participating in a (bike) dirt jumping contest only to fall and have a pit bull start chewing on my arm. Crazy dreams aside it was a fun experience and actually pretty comfortable. It reminds me of an adage that an old boss told me once when I asked whether I should buy a house or a sports car: You can sleep in your car, but you can't drive your house. Brilliant. So to cut a long story short the weather was incredible on race day: sunny, cool and dry. The trails in Winthrop are super buff and super fast. Me and new wheels were ready to race. Again long story short: I started out in 3rd, got passed by a bunch of guys, and then fought my way back into third position. It was a 20 mile course with about 3500ft of climbing. One of the climbs (that we had to do twice) took us to the top of the beginner downhill course. I can remember last year having to get off on on particular super steep sketch-ball section. This year I rode it without hesitation (yes, I did not hesitate to shit my pants). That is proof to me that all the riding I've been doing has paid off. Oh, and it was my first Expert class podium. I was really proud of that. And yes, there were more than 3 guys racing. In fact, since my age group had the largest field of the day, all 3 of us on the podium got our entry fees refunded. Sunday, June 22, 2008
Grassroots Racing
Well exactly one week from now, I hope that Dave and I will have two stages successfully behind us. Our training is done so it was time for one last "tune-up" race before the big show next week. Unfortunately the usual racing crew (Dave, Andy Aaron, Jeff) were not able to make the trip up to Winthrop, WA. So Amy and I packed the car and set off ourselves to enjoy some of the best riding Western Washington has to offer (actually all of Washington for that matter). I hoped to reach back to my "roots" of racing this weekend--returning to a time of sleeping in my car at a campground the night before a race and just enjoying the scene without worrying about results. However, with the Amy in the mix (no wife(ves) or girlfriends during my "roots" days), we decided to still camp out but treat ourselves to the luxury of tent. Amy packed all our gear and we set off Friday afternoon for the little mountain town of Winthrop. We arrived at the Twin Lakes campground after dark and found our spot directly on the lake. I could already envision myself peaking out of the tent to watch the morning sun rise above the mountains to the east (directly across the lake). However, any such magical moments were broken by the harsh reality of the fact that a tent is absolutely worthless without poles. (Of course I am not pointing any fingers here, just merely making an observation). Thus, we really were returning to the days of sleeping in the back of the rig pre-race. Not sure what it was (perhaps the fumes from my chain lube), but the two nights we spent in the in the Jeep incited the most vivid, bizarre, random and violent dreams I can remember in a long time (usually my dreams consist of my boss telling that I've missed some important deadline-seriously. How lame is that?). The last thing I remember this morning before waking was participating in a (bike) dirt jumping contest only to fall and have a pit bull start chewing on my arm. Crazy dreams aside it was a fun experience and actually pretty comfortable. It reminds me of an adage that an old boss told me once when I asked whether I should buy a house or a sports car: You can sleep in your car, but you can't drive your house. Brilliant. So to cut a long story short the weather was incredible on race day: sunny, cool and dry. The trails in Winthrop are super buff and super fast. Me and new wheels were ready to race. Again long story short: I started out in 3rd, got passed by a bunch of guys, and then fought my way back into third position. It was a 20 mile course with about 3500ft of climbing. One of the climbs (that we had to do twice) took us to the top of the beginner downhill course. I can remember last year having to get off on on particular super steep sketch-ball section. This year I rode it without hesitation (yes, I did not hesitate to shit my pants). That is proof to me that all the riding I've been doing has paid off. Oh, and it was my first Expert class podium. I was really proud of that. And yes, there were more than 3 guys racing. In fact, since my age group had the largest field of the day, all 3 of us on the podium got our entry fees refunded. 
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I would like to say that though I packed the car, the missing tent poles were not my fault as implied in this post. If said poles had been stored correctly (I'm not pointing fingers, just making an observation), we would not have missed them.
Amy :)
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