What a long, strange trip (this weekend of racing) has been....

Each blog is different.  Each race weekend is different.  
This weekend:  What a long, strange trip it has been?!  Yeah, felt a little like that for sure.
Unpredictable events.   Different feelings.   Unexpected luck.
 Read on.   This week I took a timeline approach.


Friday 12/07/12 - work and race assembly process

• 17:00. Leave work.  Get packed.   Hoards of clothes.  4 bikes.  2 trainers and 2 trainer wheels.  2 coolers.  Stuff.  More stuff.   More, more...stuff.   Yeah, almost feels like each weekend there is more vs. less.  
• Notes:  Watched a movie.  Felt almost like a normal friday night.

Saturday 12/08/12 - NY UCI SuperCross

• 04:30. Wake.  ouch.
• 05:30. depart house
• Notes:  I am obsessed with leaving on time.  Obsessed.
• Weather:  Mega fog, mist

• Sometime after sunrise.  Damn Po Po stopped us in DE right before the bridge.

       Po Po Quotes:
           "You don't have to thank me."
           "And don't let this ruin your day..."

• Notes:  AT is very polite when stopped.   But she should have turned on more of a charming girl routine (blonde girl?) and go for the "warning" ticket.   ;-)

• 10:00 ish.  arrive NY
• 10:00-12:15 warmups and readying to race.
• Notes:   course was modified due to Hurricane Sandy and FEMA support in the area taking over usual course spot.  With that said, we still had a race and that was cool.   But, course def was more of a grass crit course which didn't suit my strengths.  
• 13:00-13:45.  race.  full of mega pain.  couldn't shed that damn girl Liz behind me.  Man I tried.  Caught a nice stick in my brakes on the first lap and had to stop/dismount to fix it.   What little gap I had on few girls behind me disappeared and I just couldn't drop Liz after that.  I tried but she grunted her way back to my wheel.  Right on my wheel. I raced my arse off but field ahead was crazy fast Saturday and I was in no man's land fast.  Little island of me and Liz.  Liz tried to make a few passes, none successful except the only the mattered, the last one right before the finish.  She got me.  While I had a few expletives at the end, she raced smarter.  Well done Liz.  I finished feeling mega disappointed.  The "I suck" theme was playing, playing loud.  My emotions were not quite stable Jen emotions.  I was a hot mess. 
• 13:45-?.  While feeling very sorry for my sad little self, I washed my bike.  Went immediately inward with a leave me alone bumper sticker on my forehead.  Deal is:  I am human.  I want to do well.  I set these crazy high bars for myself.  I train.  I train more.  I train more.   And sometimes I just don't meet the self-imposed goal I set.   But in the end, does the goal even matter?  No.  That is one fraction of life in time.  It's a race.  It is an experience.  But sometimes it feels like it matters a lot.  So.  I had my sorry Jen Pity party for 30-60 minutes then as any good solutions person does:  they look to solve the problem. 
• The Recipe Fix for the Disappointed Me:
• Stop washing your bike.  It's clean enough...geez.
• Change clothes, yeah being dry is awesome.
• Decide to communicate again.  
• Hug it out.  Huuuuugggg it out.
• Almost cry.  'Cause you are a "little bit girl" after all.   Maybe.  *Joke*
• Then do what any smart cyclocross racer does -- you know the ones that really have a lot of fun and heckle:
• Follow these Instructions:

1.  Ingest 2 beers in 30 min.   Yes.  2 Brooklyn IPAs as fast as you can.   #1 cause they taste good.  #2 because they are filling.  Needed post race nutrients.  um, something like that.

2.  Raid the free Red Bull coolers.  Take 4 free red bulls for later.   Because caffeine is def my favorite addiction 2nd to cycling of course.  And these addictions play so well together.


3.  Because you have introduced Red Bull, you must inspect the Red Bull Truck.  Inspect up close.  Closer.   Ask for a tour.  Take cool photos. 

4.  Add:   an awesomely decadent Belgian waffle with chocolate and spekuloos spread.  Waffle Truck - What awesome race promoters offer:  

5. Proceed to eat as sloppily as you can.  Chocolate everywhere.   Who cares?!

6.  THEN SMILE.   You have successfully lightened up and come back down to the ground.  You realize it is a privilege to race.  This is after all, just a race that doesn't really mean anything.  Really.  A race is only 40 minutes and is gone.  Blip.  Gone.



7.  Decide you are in New York so it's now time to pursue real food in Manhattan.  


8.  Hand the car keys over.   See step #1.  :-)



Saturday 12/08/12 - Part Deux of the Day.   Adventure Time.

The Plan was to leave NY race, grab dinner in Manhattan and then head to my Cousin Gail's house near Emmaus PA.   Sunday's race would be 20 minutes from Gail's.   We'd hang with them and get over to the race in the AM.

• Post race. AT drives us to NY amidst the crazy Saturday traffic.  My mind is mush.  Pleasant mush.   Operation post race a true success.
• Arrive Manhattan.   Found parking near Angelica Restaurant on 12th street.   Restaurant offered a Vegan menu.  Split a bunch of food per the new usual.  Hunger def kicked in.   Spent time transitioning from early day mode to post race.  Good conversation, people-watching and eavesdropping on other conversations.  Yeah.  
• Took a picture of Jesus.  Cause he had a cake! Needed more candles though.
• Side Note:   Sometimes you are lucky enough to have people in your life truly enter your life and see you.  As my friend says:  really see you.  or be seen.  For me, it really doesn't happen that often despite appearances.  Maybe I don't want it to.  Maybe it is just the way it is.  Anyway, this "be seen" observation, of myself, stuck with me, not an analysis but rather an observation.  Maybe me seeing me.  And it continues to sit with me as a write this.  Anyway.  I'm really lucky to have a very few people in my life that really see me and can offer me perspective.  Their Perspectives sit with me, speak to me,  long after the conversations are over.  Maybe this is what the weekend was all about.  Discovering and re-discovering little nuggets of perspective.  Maybe this was the "win."  Maybe I just re-defined win.

 So the story shifts to positive.  Calm.  Good stuff.   But it wouldn't be a good story without more unexpected, strange occurrences.

• 18:00.  Or so.  Leave Manhattan.  Dinner was great.  2 bikes were still on the hitch when we returned to the car.  Even better Good stuff.  Yes.
• Lincoln Tunnel get us out of here.  West to PA.
• Stopped to get gas in Jersey City.
• Car wouldn't start.
• Car wouldn't start.
• Cr@pOLA.  
• Nice Minivan Man with sister living somewhere in MD offered a jump.   No luck.  Tried, tried and re-tried.  Nothing.  Nothing.
• Proceed to analyze.  What the heck are we going to do.  We are in freaking Jersey City with a ton of bike cr@pola everywhere.  Everywhere.   Gulp.   Breathe.  
• Pray to Jesus with his missing birthday candles.
• 19:30.  Push car out of the way of the gas pump.
• Decide like racing, there will be no giving up.  No matter how bad you feel, you must keep going.  Thank-you AT, you brought more of that.  Maybe it was a quiet, reserved desperation that fueled you.  But you said or think it was you:  try again.
• Guy in Nissan.  Ask him for a jump, 'cause Nissan will jump better.  Nissan likes Honda.  Maybe that dumb Dodge didn't like our Honda.
• Try again.
• Nothing.
• Try again.
• Nothing.
• Mess with the cables.
• Try again.
• OMG, it started.
• Thank-you sweet Jeeezus.

So.  there were two options at this point in the story.  Proceed to Gail's in no-where's-ville PA or head back to Baltimore and do NOT shut down the engine.

• We drove west toward PA.   Somewhere in that first 20 minutes of driving west on I-78 we discussed the real risks.

  Worst Case:  Car doesn't start tomorrow and we get stuck in PA.  How do we get home?  Consequences?  Ouch, this scenario sucks!

  Better Case:   What if we drive home?   Swap cars.  Race tomorrow.   (Remember how a few folks get stuck in my head and really know me.  Well thank you T for offering this HUGE NUGGET of wisdom while I was at the gas station.)

• Unexpected twist.
• Strange trip.
• Full of luck.  Thank-you luck.
• 20:00-23:00 Drive home.  Unpack some.  Eat again.  Shower.  Sleep.   

Sunday 12/09/12 - Limestone at the Kiln, Emmaus PA


Sunday Weather:    Who cares about a little rain especially after our Saturday adventures?

• 06:00.   Wake and move
• 06:00-07:00:  pack AT's car.   Today we'd have our A bikes leaving our pit bikes at home.
• Pit stop:   Donuts!!!!!!!!!!  Why not.
• 10:00:  arrive Emmaus PA.
• Setup the 3-leg tent.  The tent that has stories.  The poor little wounded tent that still does a good job keeping us dry.  The tent that could.   
• Walk the course versus ride the course.  Way too muddy and only one bike... it was a wicked, smart call.
• General Notes:    I feel generally mellow today.  Tired.  Def tired from the long, strange Saturday trip but overall not bad.  Different energy.  Less amp.  Bit of a different perspective on the day's goals ahead ... 
• The umbrella hat came back out.  She'd been hiding since Gloucester.  You have to have fun when the umbrella hat comes out to play.  Ridiculously awesome and super functional.  Hands free.  :-) Smiles.
• The course:  mud.  Tons of mud.  four run-ups.  yes four.   FOUR.  ouch.  Great course, epic CX course.  CrayCray.   It was crazy.  It was fun.  It hurt.  It WAS fun.  I will def come back to race the Kiln.  Maybe I'll have mud tires by then.   Ha.

So what a long strange CX trip of a weekend it has been?   It was a good trip at the end of the day.  Sunday was a freaking blast.   Maybe I needed a mud cleanse.  Maybe I just needed to loosen this tight grip I put around myself.

Cycles and cyclocross kind of go hand in hand.   The cycle taught me a lot and gave me more mental stuff to chew on for awhile.