...fasten your race chains

8.11.09

yay to a new kitteh

So apparently Chan & Axel have a new kitteh.  B's Picasa pictures show him to be ever so cute too.  Oh oh how I want to pet their new kitteh !  What is kitteh's name?

Today Dan & I are going to race cross at Portland International Raceway for the Cross Crusade's penultimate series race.  Well, I am going to race because Dan's derailleur flew into his spokes on the way to the now non-existent farmer's market last wednesday.  He tried to put the der. from his road bike on, but it turns out that he needs a new chain and hanger.  Poor dude.  I'm going to race.  The flu has been going around at work though, and last friday I felt pukey.  Saturday I stayed in all day and rested, and felt fine, and today I can't tell how I feel!  I might be feeling hot, but that might be because I've been wearing wool baselayers and the heat is on.... and I might be pukey, but it might be because I ate oatmeal in the morning.... or maybe this is all pms, or maybe I am nervous about racing...  ugh, in any case, I've been drinking a lot of tea.  In any case, I am racing today and I am going to have a blast and maybe even do well.

Speaking of cross, last weekend was amaaaaazing.  Epic (for me, but I've only lived in Oregon for about a month!).  Dan and I rented a car and drove to Astoria, on the coast.  Actually the car was a Camry, and quite pleasant and even gave me a bit of a soft spot for cars, as it was cozy and warm and sure beat leaving at 8:00 pm Friday night to ride our bikes to Astoria with the gear on our backs.  The race was at the fairgrounds, and it had rained a lot, leaving the place a muddy mess.  When we rolled in, a group of about 4 older dudes dressed as Borat were racing.  Yes, they were wearing the neon green thong.  And yes, one of them at least experienced a wardrobe malfunction, though I only heard about it.  Sunday was "official costume day" because it was tradition, even though Saturday was real Halloween.  Dan and I only dressed up on Sunday.  

Before my race Saturday, it poured for about 5 minutes, and all the women's Bs ran under tents.  Then it cleared up and our race was on!  Lots of fresh mud!  I actually got a call up, which came as a pleasant surprise.  We went down a screaming hill at the start, the kind of slick hill you can't brake on and that you slide all over the place at the bottom, where it turns, but your tires catch you and you keep pedaling like nothing happened because you have to climb another hill.  That was a fun part.  We wove in and out of stables (or something stable-y) which was slick, and there was a longish climb that you had to dismount in the middle of usually because it got too slick, and a few short climbs that you could get up if you got enough momentum.  On one of these shorties, a girl crashed in front of me, and I crashed into her and our bikes got tangled, and when we thought we had them free they got tangled again... oh the laughs.  There was a technical part with lots of turns and hills where I kept crashing into the chain-link fence.  And then the finish line that was easy to sprint to, except that each time I sprinted to it I found I had one more lap.  Ahh!  It was a hard race for me, and a lot of fun.  I got 7th!  Dan ended up mid-pack that day.  He was at the very back of the starting line-up and passed people the entire time, so he did pretty decently.  

After the race, we watched the A's for a bit, drank a couple of beers, and got some dinner at a cheesy and expensive restaurant because we were too tired to go find the restaurant we were actually looking for.  Dan ordered a burger with Habaneros and couldn't finish it because it was so hot!  He was almost crying.  He couldn't finish his beer.  We counted, and there were 8 entire habaneros on the burger.  Why he ordered it...?  We went to our campsite at the gorgeous piney state park and crawled into our tent at 7:30.  Yep, we slept for 15 hours that night!

Costume day!  I put together a dinosaur costume with the remains of the padded foam from my Madone box and we got some funky clothes from the Goodwill.  Dan wore a dalmatian print silk blouse with flowy purple pants and foam puppy ears.  We called him a "Circus Pup".  (???)  We blended right in.  Dan flatted on his second lap, which really sucked because he had gotten a good start for once, and was moving right up.  It's hard in the B's because there are so many strong dudes.  Oh well..  The course was different today, but equally muddy and fun and insane and hard.  There were guys dressed in orange suits who acted as human barriers and race rules said we had to go over them just like they were real (non-human) barriers!  How many times did they get kicked in the balls?  I had gotten a better warm-up Sunday than Saturday and was more used to my tires and bike.  (Saturday was my first race on Poprad for the season!  Also, I am racing my EC90's with hot new grayish tubies that Dan got me for my birthday!)  Sunday it was easier to see who was who: I knew Wonder Woman was in front, so I tried to catch her, for example.  I spent the race chasing the blue/pink fairy and not letting Wonder Woman #2 and Mrs. Claus get me.  Costumes are so much easier for me to spot than team kits.  All team kits look the same.....well, except for that notorious joker skull!   I ended up 4th on Sunday!

The A's race was a lot of fun to watch.  We hung out for a while and then drove home.  What a great weekend.  Oh, you have to check out the cross pictures at pdxcross.  They are beautiful black and white photos that really capture the spirit of cross.  Y'all are missing out..

So yeah, everything is going well.  Dan is applying for a head mechanic job at the moment.  I'm enjoying my new job as well!  The early mornings are fine now, and the commute is pretty fun.  One afternoon last week, Anna and I rode by Nike headquarters and met with 7 other people commuting home from work!  The nine of us continued to Portland together, and I ended up riding with two other people almost all the way home.  There is certainly a camaraderie here!  My new job is pretty fun, I really like my co-workers and boss and the office has a really comfortable atmosphere.  There isn't a real feeling of hierarchy within their system, which is nice.  Anna and I are new, but our jobs seem to be important to the company, after all, we make sure that people get their money back on returns!  Everyone is so helpful at teaching us things, and I enjoy the pace of the job.  One funny thing is that some of the regulars at Champaign Cycle also shop online at TE!  When I discovered this it made me happy... the shop regulars are people I kind of miss!  

So here's to fastgrrrlz :-)  

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