Alpenrose Challenged

A tale of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good

- I did not go to the hospital

- I rode on 47 degree banks

- There were so many women signed up that they split the mass start fields into PRO 1-2 and Cat 3. I came in 8th out of 12ish in the 5-mile scratch. I felt like I could have done much better, but the other women couldn't or wouldn't help to chase down a break so it ended up more a pack sprint and I was too wigged out by the unevenness and banking of the track to do any spirited sprinting.

- I was super inspired watching Juice and Kele battle it out with the other PROs and kick ass on this crazy track! They both gave Jane and I some much needed words of wisdom and support, esp Juice's equally demoralizing story about her first time racing at Alpenrose years ago when she......well you'll just have to race down there and earn the right to hear her story!

- I had the most fun catching up with former Seattlites Jose, Sharon, and Kori and just chillin' under our tent. They took a ton of photos that captured the power and speed on the track as well as the festive community on the infield. Now I'm more excited than ever to return to Alpenrose.....for Cross Crusade!!

The Bad

- Yours truly gets to start her racing by being the first person to do the 200 meter TT. Are you kidding me? I have all of 20 minutes on this whacky track, most of it trying to negotiate around 50 other riders and remembering to breathe, and I have to go FIRST? So I asked for some advice from the locals and did a flying shot in the dark. And came in DFL. Woohoo!!!

- There were at least 5 crashes that I saw over the weekend, which left me shuddering whenever I heard the bikes roar through the first turn near our tent. My stomach was sick anticipating another crash. Oh, and then I'M supposed to participate in a pack race. I spent most of my time staying far away from anyone's wheel and trying to control my bike that was fighting bad physics through the turns and bumps in the concrete that tossed us around.

The Ugly

- The worst track crash (not on YouTube yet for some reason) I ever seen, right in front of our team tent. Not a good way for a wide-eyed newbie to start her weekend of racing. I saw it happening, shut my eyes, opened them again only to see a guy flying up by the rail so I shut my eyes again expecting them all to be dead. Luckily they all eventually walked away with only some track rash. Make sure to note the wheel and part of its fork hurtling through space.

- In another bad crash, a poor guy slid on his front side across the apron, ripping the front of his skin suit and getting some nasty track rash on his face and half of his chest, nearly ripping off a nipple. Is track racing worth losing a nipple? I think not.

Big Waves

This weekend will be "Jane and Jill's Big Adventure" as we road trip down to Portland for the Alpenrose Challenge. Elite chickees from around the country and even from around the world (Guatemala? Trinidad?? Tobago???) will be there, too. Why, you may ask, am I showing up? Well yes I'd be asking the same thing if I sat where you are. How does anyone get roped into something way over their head?

1) They've been talked into it by someone else who makes it sound like SO MUCH FUN
2) Sheer ignorance/naiveté
3) Both

The same could be said when my grad school roommate and I went to Puerto Rico for a week of surfing a number of years ago. Everyone from our little town had been there and told us we HAD to go because it's warm water and so beautiful and that, oh sure - there are plenty of easy waves for you to ride.

LIARS.

When Meghan and I got there we did find a sweet little longboard cove on our first day with no one else around, but out of no where, like a switch had just been turned on, the waves suddenly got really Really REALLY big and we found ourselves completely out of our element, pitifully trying to paddle back into shore while not getting our brains bashed into the coral.

But we survived. And we challenged ourselves every day and got a little bit better. Our timing became more in tune to the faster, bigger waves that rose up out of the deep. We learned how to wait just a few seconds longer and throw our weight back on the steeper face and to pop up faster than we ever thought our tired legs could. And the people we met in the line-up coaxed us along and laughed even when we got pummeled, but really cheered when we got that one good ride-of-the-day that left smiles a mile wide.

Yeah, that's how I'm looking at this weekend. I'll get pummeled, but I'll get back up and keep paddling knowing that I've taken myself up a notch afterwards and that I can bump it up even more the next time I'm in the water.

Summer!

This is my first real, long, enjoyable, activity-filled summer since 2005 and it's a BLAST.

- Did my first Keirin on Friday night and somehow came in 4th in the finals, behind Amara, Annette, and Tela. I call it beginner's dumb luck thanks to my excellent pole positioning in both races. I can definitely dig a race where you don't have to do any work except for the last 600 meters and I even did a new personal high speed of 32.8mph (and the girls who won were going even faster!).

- Need to race smarter in the longer races. No more chasing down everything and saying "it will make me stronger." No, it will make you blow up and finish at the back.

- I've discovered a cure for the hipster fixie plague: make them do workouts 2x/week in a +92" gear. Soon rear derailleurs will no longer be in stock at your LBS.

- I love riding Kermit around town. More than anything I love his gear range so I can spin up any hill and coast at leisure to recover from said 92" gear workouts.

- I love twilight at 10:30pm and sitting on my deck after a hot summer day of riding around, checking out our little garden of spinach, tomatoes, peppers and herbs. It should be like this all the time.

- Despite the wonderful summer, I'm already thinking about CX season and getting a new, GEARED bike. Even one that's light enough for me to shoulder. So far Jake the Snake is at the top of my list, mostly because it's blue and PRETTY. That goes far in a girl's book. What? A 2nd new bike in 2 months? Well.....yeah. Gotta support the LBS in my own form of economic stimulus!