This is my Friday - 9.18.14

Lots to catch up on!

So. It’s been a while. It’s hard to follow up a blog post about the death of your mother with witty and sarcastic commentary about bikes, racing, wine, friends and life in general. It’s been a tough few months at work as well so I just haven’t found the motivation to be sarcastic and witty.

I limped through the last month or two of race season because I didn’t want to squander the leads I had established in both BAR competitions and the VA Omnium. I even conquored my fears of the Track thanks to Gwenn and her expertise. Thanks also to Esmonde, who lent me his track bike (that I have not yet returned!) 

Champions of the WORLD!!

 Thankfully I did manage to hold the overall on all counts so the effort was not without reward but gosh, my results were terrible and I wasn’t having fun. Thank goodness for off season!!

 

Admit it- these are pretty SWEET

The offseason gives me a chance to do silly things … like running. Yes, you read that right. I have been running on a somewhat regular basis. In the beginning it was pretty slow – I won’t quote any numbers but take my word for it – S L O W. Then I got a new pair of kicks ! Nothing like something new to make you step your game up, right? Eh. Kinda. I’m still slow by any “real” runner’s judgment, but faster than my original slow. I do heart my new running shoes. I admit that I hesitated Wednesday morning on getting out there but I did it - because I wanted to wear my shoes. 

I’m also doing some P90x workouts. I say “some” because I’m not following the schedule as I have in the past. It’s tough to find time for running and long days at work with 1-1.5 hrs of P90x every day. That said, it’s doing good things for me; the ab workout nearly kills you in 16mins if you do it right and, let’s admit it, we aren’t doing a whole lotta upper body stuff on the bike so push-ups and pull-ups are great cross training (tiny baby pull ups for me – someday I want to do a real one. someday). 

Oh, and I finally get to commute by bike to work!! The office building finished the gym and associated locker room with showers. Yes, I’ve been told that I could do a field shower but … no. It’s not a long commute but it starts the day off much better for everyone. For me, I get to work happy because of the adrenaline spike. For others, I’m not yelling at stupid people doing stupid things on the road. Win-Win. 

Bikes!!

Offseason has given me the chance to do things that I haven’t done in way too long. Like going up to visit my beautiful cousin in PA. We took a marathon bike ride together, something we’ve never done. She doesn’t ride and was on flat-pedals but hung in there for over 3 hours!

Bike ride with a thumb in the pic.

Then we went to the Zac Brown concert in Hershey – hands down, the best concert I’ve been to! So glad to have that memory.

Making faces before the concert

Someone please explain why I couldn't take decent pics - The girl in front of me was taking awesome shots but this is the best I got.

The next weekend I went down to Charlottesville with Claudette for a metric century in the hills. I finally got to meet Mary; I’ve heard her name and knew of her but it was fun to hang out and ride with both of these fine ladies. Loved the little town of Charlottesville. I’ve been in the area for races but never knew the cute little town square. A fun weekend trek with some fun people! 

Mary, Claudette and me. Look at those green rolling hills!

Because I saw it in the parking garage and thought it was kinda cool.

Real Life: It kinda sucks sometimes

It was her birthday. She was officially 63. And she died later that morning.

I hadn’t heard her voice in several years and her last two years were spent exclusively in the nursing home bed with a feeding tube and bad TV for when she was actually awake. I didn’t visit as often as I probably should have because it was so hard to see her; until the last year or so, she would cry violently at random times and I hated to think that I was stirring up bad memories or that she had a sudden jolt of consciousness and realized what condition she was in. She was trapped in her own body and I could only hope that her mind didn’t let her know how bad it was. The woman I knew would be mortified to know that people had to change her diaper and that her beautiful teeth were full of cavities because they just don’t spend time or money on teeth when they’re trying to keep you alive and out of pain.

In some ways her passing was a relief. She suffered from Alzheimers and Parkinsons ; the former was diagnosed as dementia back in 2007 or so because she was “too young” to have Alzheimers. The latter came on slowly but worked consistently to shut her body down. It’s been a tough week or so for me to figure things out in my head. Her passing was not a shock but the finality of it was still hard to take. I look around at other ladies her age, doting on children and grandchildren, off to bingo or vacationing with their family and wonder why she couldn’t have that. I think, more than anything, I mourn the lost opportunity, how things could have been different and better somehow. 

Her life, and our family life, was not easy but I do remember some good times and happy memories. I’m staring at a picture on my desk right now that I took from the nursing home on my last visit – by some beautiful stroke of fate I managed to make the trip up to see her two days before she passed away. 

The picture was taken shortly after my brother died and I wanted to take her out for a girl’s day. We already knew she was regressing but she was still functional. We went to get our hair done; the picture was taken in the salon. That day I also took her to get her very first pedicure. She didn’t quite know what to do with that and she had ticklish feet so she was giggling the whole time. Oh, and I took her to Starbucks. She didn’t know what she wanted so I got her a Caramel Latte. She tentatively took a sip and her face lit up – THIS IS SO GOOD!  It is a happy-sad memory right now but it’s mostly happy.

We did not have a great relationship but I know she had a good heart.  Right now I hope that I’m wrong in my opinions about religion and she’s out in the great somewhere, hanging out with my brother and my granddaddy. Even if that’s not how things work, the thought makes me smile. She suffered more than any one person should have to in a lifetime. Rest in peace, Momma

Fort Ritchie - Where I was almost a Champion

This weekend's Masters Championship race was sparsely attended by the women. In total, the 35+ and 45+ field had 7 pre-registered and 2 day of. One of the pre-registrants couldn't make it so we were still a tiny field.

It's a fun course and the weather was darn near perfect for a fast race while working on the bike-tan lines. The thing about such a small field, there's really nowhere to hide and you don't get a line of riders to latch on should you blow yourself up at the front and drop back.

Dana was in the 45+ racing against two Colavita riders, Tania and I were racing for the 35+ jersey against Mary from NCVC, who is on fire right now, Tsahai from Artemis and a relatively unknown Stacy Jensen with an out-of-district team.

Dana went from the gun while I had what might have been my worst start ever. I couldn't clip in, nearly impaled myself on the top tube when my foot slipped and then killed myself to catch up as our small field crested the initial rise in the course. I realized that I was in the small ring - which explained why I was spinning out trying to catch back on - about halfway down the hill into the last turn. I guess that's one way to start a race. Sheesh.

We settled into a pretty good pace with some attacks from Colavita and NCVC but I was successful to stay around 3rd wheel most of the time. Dana launched a couple of times and I would counter but to be honest, no one wanted to do that course alone with the headwind on the backside. I saw others make attacks and noted that attacking into the wind didn't work because everyone would come together with the downhill into the turn. It seemed like a lot of jockying for shelter but no one was able to sit in.

While we kept the pace pretty solid, it was still a relatively uneventful race with the exception of the beer primes. Those prompted some momentum but it normally fizzled out by the first turn. A prime was called with 4-to-go so coming to the line the speed picked up. I had planned on countering the prime but was a little bit out of position so I charged past the line with everyone else, picking off spots. There was a melee behind me and I found out it was my teammate, Tania, that went down. They neutralized us with 2-to-go as the ambulance had to get on course to help Tania. I have some pretty gruesome pictures of her helmet that Phil sent out - definitely a good "wear your helmet" campaign message. Thankfully she is ok and home, healing with plenty of road rash.

The Chief Ref had us spin around while we waited and let us know that they would start us with a neutral lap and then we'll be on for 2-to-go.

Starting what amounts to a sprint race is always tricky - everyone has lost the rhythm of the race and we're all a bit twitchy, trying to organize our respective plans of attack. We got going neutral and then got the whistle to go for reals. Kind of. Going around the backside no one wanted to take the wind so it slowed down a tick. Come into the bell lap and we started jockeying for position. Dana took a flyer on the backside but we were catching her as we went into the downhill. I knew this was now or never so I dropped a gear and flew up the inside. For a second I thought I might have gone too late and would run out of real estate before the turn but I came through clean, leaned into the turn and immediately straightened up to start my sprint. YES. You read that right. I actually sprinted.

I threw everything I had into it, running to the line and no one was passing me. I saw the red tape and heard a wheel coming around me. Stacy just out sprinted me for the win. Dana came in on my right, winning her category. I was pretty happy with myself. While I didn't win, I knew I had a good race.

Then the drama. I was informed that I had won the jersey. Stacy is not in a club in our district and, to be honest, I was shocked and thrilled at the same time. Dana and I BOTH won jerseys. Yay!

Not so fast.

The MABRA rules changed in the last couple of years. Unlike VCA, where you have to be a member of a club in good standing, anyone who is of age can come in, take the championship and maybe dip in sometime next year. Apparently you don't have to be associated with MABRA at all to win the championship. You can simply have an address in a certain zip code zone and you are eligible. How does that encourage people to be a part of a club or encourage clubs to bother to pay dues and promote races?

As we were waiting for the ruling as to who actually got the jersey, she actually said "I don't care about the jersey, just give me the payout". Don't get me wrong, I have raced with her in other venues and I have nothing against her at all. Yeah, she won the race, all well and good. But she's not MABRA. She's not going to represent MABRA. Her club does not promote races in MABRA, nor do they pay MABRA dues. She DOESN'T CARE about the jersey, does that not say enough??  Is THAT who you want to call your "Champion"?

What was a great race for me pretty much turned into an emotional rollercoaster. It was a tiny race of 8 people but it meant something and now it represents something different. I never ask for anything to be handed to me but this is completely unfair and unsupportive of those who support you, MABRA.

I suppose this is where someone will say "too bad, life isn't fair".

Whatever.