Me time!!!

It has been years since I have actually lived my life for me, taking care of what is important to me and doing what I want without getting approval or thinking about what others think first. I am ready, for it is way overdue. I have lived many of the last years unhappy and held back. No more. Now I have the time to focus on me! I have no idea how to really do that, since I haven’t had much experience in it! Being in the right relationship should never cause unhappiness or hold you back. I haven’t quite figured that one out yet! I have not been single much since I started dating when I was 15. No more than a couple months at a time. I am not one to search them out, and it seems every time one ends and I am ready to focus on me, I get tied into another one. I have no idea why. I am not a needy person, I do not need to be in a relationship and I have yet to find one that makes me happy! I have felt I have come close a time or two, but it has been a while. Since it seems in a way I am back tracking and not making much progress I have decided to take a break from that scene. I have just started a new job, and have very recently left the person I was dating, what better time to start over! I am incredibly excited and scared at the same time. I have no idea what to expect and I have no idea if I will be able to keep myself off the dating scene. It seems as soon as people find out I am single they start lining guys up for me. Maybe I should become a nun.  just kidding! I feel fortunate, in a way, that this has all happened at the same time. It gives me a fresh start to life almost. A perfect time to decide to focus on me and figure out what the heck I want out of life! I have realized that is a very difficult thing to do when you are constantly with someone. Every decision is based on how they will feel about it, how it will affect both of you etc. I am done with that, at least for now. I feel, in a way, that I have missed out on a lot of things by being in the wrong relationships. Life is too short for that! I have always been the one to give the advice to find yourself first before finding that one to fit your life. I think it is time I start listening to my own advice…

Great Mid-Week Weekend

Matt and I both had Tuesday and Wednesday off this week, and we really took advantage of it! On Monday I finally got to enjoy one of the birthday presents Matt got me by going to the Matt Nathanson show. I will have to say that was one of the best shows I have ever been to! Thanks Matt! On Tuesday we woke up and headed up to Keystone for our first day of boarding! The snow was actually pretty good, and I didn’t kill myself! It took a while for my legs to get into it, but it felt awesome to get on the board again. Since they only had one run open we got fairly bored after 5 or 6 runs, even after switching boards for a couple of them. So around 2:30 we headed to the bottom and went to Parrot Eyes Bar for some wine, Connect Four and good conversation. By then we were getting hungry, so we went into Frisco for some Indian food. Yum! Since it was a first day boarding, we had to relax our bodies so we went to the hot tub at our condo where we continued to spend a couple hours time warping again with wine and good conversation. All of a sudden it was 9pm and we still had to drive home! So we stumbled out of the hot tub and went home to bed.

Wednesday morning we decided to take Seranno out for a good hike, so I took Matt up to my favorite spot: Chief Mountain. About half way up we started to see some spots of blood in the snow. I called Seranno over and we looked at her foot, which was bleeding really good, but not because of the snow, she ended up breaking one of her nails. It was pretty far down and hung at a 90 degree angle. It didn’t seem to affect her, she still ran up and down the trail, so we decided to keep going since I knew she wouldn’t be happy with me if we cut her hike short. She did fine, and we all made it to the top to enjoy the great views. It was very windy out, so we didn’t stay long at the summit. Seranno did decide that she didn’t want her nail anymore, so she proceeded to tear off her whole nail. Rather disgusting, but it seemed to make her happy, so ok. At first on the way down it seemed that the bleeding had slowed down, but then it started up again, in full force. Every time she stopped, even for a short amount of time, she would leave a big puddle of blood. At one point she way laying off of the trail chewing on a stick, and when we came up to her we saw a weird spray of blood next to her. After looking closer we saw that blood was squirting out like liquid out of a syringe. That freaked me out pretty good, so we started walking a bit faster. When we finally made it back to the car I took out my first aid kit and ended up wrapping up her foot and covering it with one of my socks, but not before she bled some large spots in my car. Once we got home we soaked her foot is some warm water and hydrogen peroxide and then wrapped it back up. Up close it looked really nasty and painful, but she is a trooper and handled it very well. She will have to take it easy for a while to heal up good, and hope her nail grows back, but she will be up and running again in no time!

Other than the excitement of Seranno’s foot it was a wonderful weekend spent with the only person I could imagine. There is never a dull moment…

Update…

I have been slacking in the blogging world, but it is not due to the fact that I haven’t had anything to write about, actually the exact opposite is true! I have been keeping busy and having lots of fun. Let me try to recap without making this post ridiculously long…

In October I went to the GABF with Matt and his friends, which we all had a great time with each others company while drinking good beer from all over. The following week we went to see Sean Kelly from the Samples, which actually turned out to be a disappointment, at least for me. In my opinion Sean needs the rest of the Samples to make him the amazing musician I always thought he was.

Matt and I spent a weekend down in La Veta with Mel, Scott, Ayshia and Mel’s friend Carrie, which was a nice relaxing time. We didn’t do anything too exciting, went hiking and had lots of ice cream…

The weekend of the 25^th Matt and I headed out to Fruita for Adventure Cycles “After the Harvest Before the Snow” biking event, where we met up with Scott, Brett, Erik, Chris and Marni. We had a blast there trying out the Yeti demo bikes and getting in some good riding around Mary’s Loop and out at the Bookcliffs. Congratulations to Matt for winning the bike toss and to Chris for being runner-up in the barrel races. One of the best memories I will have of this trip though had nothing to do with biking, but a seesaw and swings…

At the end of the month we went to the KBCO concert that featured Newton Faulkner, G-Love and Special Sauce and Alanis Morrisette. These tickets were only available by winning them through KBCO, and it turned out that a couple of my co-workers won tickets as well, so we all got together before the show to hang out for a drink. It was a great time, especially seeing Newton Faulkner!

The first weekend of November was spent bike riding, chilling at Avery, bottomless glasses of wine, dancing in the streets of Boulder while getting cheers from a bus full of people (as well as blasting Sweet Caroline for us), somewhat seeing Gregory Allan Isakov and napping in the parking garage till 2 in the morning…. Yeah, good times. J

I’m Back!!

I am finally cleared and good to go ride my bike now! Technically it was a couple days early, but I couldn’t wait anymore and it was such a beautiful day out, so yesterday Matt and I went to do Lair o the Bear. It was awesome! I missed that bike so much and it was great to go for a ride where nothing hurt! Now I am hoping that the weather stays good for a while so I can still ride before all the snow hits. I have a lot of training to do before the 18 hours of Fruita!

Another Year…

Every year since I was about 18 my dad and I have gone on some sort of adventure trip for our birthday’s. This year we decided to hang out in La Veta and climb Trinchera Peak, a 13er in the Sangre De Cristo Range. We got up early on Saturday drove the 20 minutes to the trail head, a major bonus to having a place so close to the mountains. Other than a few campers on the way up we had the trail and summit to ourselves. On the way up we saw a heard of mountain goats so we stopped to watch them for a while. It was pretty amazing to see, especially when two of the males started butting heads. I have only seen that on the Discovery Channel, not in real life.

After oohing and ahhing we continued up the trail. It got steeper towards the top, but I think that was more because my dad was making the trail up as we went along. We turned quite a bit of the final ascent into true rock climbing, and there was some major exposure in some areas. We didn’t spend a whole lot of time on the summit because it was really windy and cold. So we hiked down a little bit to a more sheltered area to have lunch and take in the views. The leaves from the surrounding aspens were intense with their changing color. I know that our foliage out here doesn’t compare to out east, but it is still spectacular to see, especially from high on a peak where you can see for miles.

After we ate some lunch we started heading down, again off the beaten path. We traversed across the face of the mountain, making it a nice class 3 in most areas. The rocks were pretty incredible and I found it was so interesting the difference of rocks at high altitudes from mountains created by volcanic movement versus mountains created by plate tectonics. That whole process of how the land developed down there is so fascinating to me and I feel so fortunate to get to experience it all first hand.

Carol ended up meeting up with us towards the bottom of the trail, so we all hiked down together then went back to the cabin to relax the rest of the weekend.

Much Needed Girl’s Night

The weekend started on Friday with a much needed girls get-away to the outdoors. Just Melissa and I headed up to one of our favorite spots, Maxwell Falls in Evergreen, to camp for the night. I believe it was the first time in our lives that just the two of us went camping together. We had a blast, carrying our heavy packs and gear around in circles in the pitch black night looking for a good camp spot. We had one that we frequented but unfortunately it was ruined by people who don’t know the true meaning of being outdoors in the wilderness. There were beer bottles and cups all over, which prompted much bitching from both of us. It is something that we never understood, and we grew up there! We ended up finding a spot that wasn’t as far off the trail as our usual spot, but it would do, and wasn’t littered with remnants of the last campers.

First things first, we cracked a bottle of wine and then proceeded to gather firewood. We started out with wine in hand, which actually lasted a while until we finally realized that we were not getting anywhere just grabbing a small handful of wood each time, so we set down the wine and spread out to gather more wood. We got a small fire going and set up the tent before we settled down to have our girl talk and enjoy some smores. Obviously I am not going to disclose what that conversation consisted of. Sorry boys.

We were really lucky with the weather; it was a very clear, calm night. once we were out of wood, and too lazy to gather more, we huddled by the fire until it died and then went to bed.

The next morning we made breakfast of yummy egg and cheese sandwiches on English muffins and coffee, of course. It made me realize how much I miss that sort of camping. I have been camping this year, but not once did I bring my stove or enjoy a cup of camp coffee. I definitely need to make it a point to do that more often.

After our leisurely breakfast we went for a walk in the woods. I have always loved it up there, and I think even more now that I live in the city. It is such a different experience being deep in the woods as opposed to exposed hikes that overlook the city. The smell is something that can never be replicated, and the color of the changing leaves was spectacular. It is an amazing thought to know that even yesterday those leaves have already taken on a different shade of red, orange or yellow, and we were some of the very few people that got the chance to see them at that moment that we did.

Once we got back to the campsite we loaded up our gear and headed out. A much needed break from reality.

Never Judge a Book by its Cover

In my quest to summit all of the 14ers here in Colorado, Mt. Evans and Pikes Peak have been the only ones I have not been looking forward to completing. This is for the obvious reason that there are roads to the summit. I have never liked the idea of ruining such a spectacular experience by allowing any old tourist to just sit in their car and have them claim they have been to the summit of a 14er in Colorado. Sitting on the summit; that you may have done, but you have lost the true value of what that really has to offer, you have not truly experienced the greatness, the solitude, the reward…

I have lived in Colorado my whole life, and although I have come close, I have never driven to the top of either Mt. Evans or Pikes Peak, and I never in my life plan on it. To be honest, these are probably the only two peaks that I will never want to climb more than once, which is a sad thought.

Yesterday I woke up early and headed west, planning to summit Mt. Evans; on foot, not by car. I really wasn’t excited, which was the first time before a climb. I was planning on a crowded trail, with pretty scenery destroyed by roads, and then the hike to the summit, overlooking a parking lot only a few feet below full of cars and tourists.

I was wrong on almost all accounts… There were only a few cars in the lot, two of which were maintenance vehicles. I passed a couple of people at the trail head, but from there on out Seranno and I were alone with the mountain. The trail was hard to find in spots, so I had to stay focused while I hiked from cairn to cairn. I had to stop a few times and do a 360 to make sure I was still on the right trail, wondering where all the people were. Not a soul in sight. I was in shock, and impressed. The views were amazing from the start, even though there were many roads to be seen. Seranno and I enjoyed our hike, I could sing to myself, and she pranced all over. We made it to the summit around noon, with the peak to ourselves. I wonder how many people have stood on that peak completely alone, especially on a nice day in September… There was the parking lot, but it was empty. Other than that, the views were, of course, spectacular, different from other 14ers mainly for the fact that you could see the city and the plains from there, not just other mountain tops. I think that was the longest time I have sat on a summit completely alone, even in winter. And even still, I left the summit completely empty. I was juiced and still excited to be up there, so I decided to head over and climb Spalding, a 13er. It didn’t take long, and the views were just as spectacular. I was alone on that peak, too. The clouds were moving in fast by this point, so Seranno and I headed down, again without passing another soul.

The road to the summit was closed for the season, which definitely was a factor in the lack of people, but it made me wonder if this peak was actually climbed that often. This thought made me sad, especially after the incredible climb I had up to the top. Who knows, maybe I will climb this peak again…

Beginnings and Ends…

 

My first “official” mountain biking season has come to an end. It has definitely had its ups and downs, with many challenges along the way, one of which finally forced me to end the season earlier than I wanted. I have found out that it is called “cycling palsy” and affects less than ¼ of cyclists. Unfortunately I let it get to a more advanced stage, making it more difficult to heal. Fortunately, though, I finally gave in and quite before it got bad enough to require surgery. It has been tough to admit to and let go of all I had planned for the fall.

With the constant issues I had throughout the season, I wasn’t overall happy with how I raced at the Winter Park series. Every race I felt I could do better, and even though it seemed I improved with every race I still never felt right on. I wanted to redeem myself this fall, having planned and trained to solo the 12 Hours of Snowmass, completing the Tour de Front Range and possibly the 24 hours of Moab, so this setback has been quite a blow to me. Anyone who knows me well knows I have rarely in my life focused on one thing. I have tried to do so many different things, for instance last summer I was on 3 hockey teams, completed a Tri, 10K and mountain bike race, went rock climbing and hiking, did some kayaking and got into yoga. I was never good at any of the above, but I enjoyed them all. I finally decided that I wanted to focus on just one thing and work on getting good at that. Out of all of those activities, mountain biking was the one that really stuck out for me. I was excited and once I really started riding this year, I knew that was where I belonged. There were so many times that being on my bike was the only place I wanted to be. Not being able to have that has been hard, but I have forced myself to view the season as overall a success, and start to focus on other things…

 

Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk

 

I started out this season both excited and nervous. I have been looking forward to racing for quite a while, but the fact that I was going to start in Sport class really intimidated me. I really thought I belonged in beginner, but Melissa and I (and Scott) didn’t think it was a great idea for us to have to compete against each other. So I ended up in Sport, where I had to then compete against Marni… Although it went a lot better than it would have if Mel and I competed, it was still difficult. It was really nice to have someone there to warm up with, and take off together at the start, but knowing that she was my competition was rough to deal with in my head sometimes. It was hard since I wanted both of us to do our best, and when I knocked her out of being on the podium the first couple of races, and only by a few minutes, I wasn’t sure what to think or do… Fortunately she kicked butt in the last few races so we were able to be on the podium together a couple of times. I never felt that I was able to relax out there, and my Zen moments of being “one with the mountain” were few and far between, especially in the earlier races. I knew I could do better, I knew I could ride better than I did. Somehow, though, I was still able to get on the podium in every race, pulling out two third places, one second and two first, which was also good enough to get first overall. I still didn’t feel quite right; it didn’t feel right when I would have a really bad race, on the verge of passing out and/or quitting several times, but still pull in a third place, or when I took it super easy on the top mountain circuit because of my wrist, and still somehow got first. I didn’t feel like I deserved it… The races were definitely challenging for me, no doubt about that. There just aren’t enough girls that race to make both the good and the bad races really count. I plan on doing a lot of changes for next year, and the first will be to race in a different category. If Marni for some odd reason decides to stay in Sport, then I will probably race in Expert. If she decides to do Expert, then I will really change it up and do Single Speed. This decision is in no way offense to Marni, I just don’t think I can hold her off my tail for another season, and I don’t want to kill myself trying! I also think it would be fun to cheer each other on in all the different categories.

I am content with what has taken place this season, I never expected at the beginning of the year that I would go from thinking I should be racing Beginner to having to move up to Expert next year. That’s a big accomplishment in itself, and I need to look at that and be excited, and not bummed that I cannot compete in the fall races. It also makes me realize that if I get the rest I need, and train like I should, I could have a very successful season next year in either Expert or SS, as well as be able to do more endurance races without the constant pain that I had to experience throughout this whole season. It was a learning experience to say the least, and I really look forward to having a pain free (hopefully), successful and fun season next year.

This is where I let the thoughts of biking go, at least for a few months, and focus on other things…

I have though about doing a marathon in the past, but since I have never really focused on one thing before, I never had enough time to train for one. Since I am out of activities that involve my hand for a while, I thought this is the best time. So I looked for one that was far enough away that I could train enough just to survive, and came across the perfect one: The Napa Valley Marathon. I think there is nothing better than a nice glass of wine after a suffer fest, and since I will be suffering tremendously, I will need all the vineyards in the Napa Valley to make me feel better. That and Mr. Matt to carry my sore bum to all the wine…

I also plan on doing a few more 14ers this year. My ultimate goal is to do all of them by my 30^th birthday. It’s possible, but I gotta get moving on that if I want to complete it! I did just purchase the Epic Season Pass; my first season pass in about 4 years… I am getting really excited to get back on my board, especially since we have unlimited to Vail and Beaver Creek! Heavenly is also thrown in there, so we will have to plan a trip out that way…

So the more I realized I had going for me, the easier it has been to take the news of not being able to ride my bike for a while. I think I will be so busy I wont even realize it until I can get on my bike again, and my then I will be ready to go!

 

Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it…

Long Weekend Thoughts…

I thought being a spectator would be easy… I found I am a better racer than I am a spectator…

 

I always thought I was good at directions… both Saturday and Sunday proved me wrong on that…

 

I never knew it was possible to make a routine Class 2 climb up Missouri Mountain into a more difficult Class 3 and some Class 4… It is…

 

I did find that my truck does really good across rivers and four wheeling…

 

I thought hiking some 14ers would be a good distraction from my wrist… It would have been if I didn’t fall on it…

 

I finally listened to all the signs and decided to bag the 14er trip and head down to the cabin to relax for the rest of the long weekend…

 

There is no better entertainment than watching two guys attempt to kite board on their butts across the Sand Dunes and then seeing a very happy dude prancing down the Dunes playing “The Sound of Music” in his head… Since I really don’t think I can retell this story, Matt, you are obviously the only one that will laugh…

 

No matter how many times I have visited the old cabin near the property, there is always something new to find, or learn, which adds to the mysterious story… like you could buy a urine bag for both males and females back in the day for about $2 from Ward… (Matt was the one that found that, ask him about it…)

 

I found that spending a relaxing long weekend with great company, watching two full beautiful rainbows form after it rained, listening to great music and cuddling while watching documentaries beats trying to conquer 6 14ers… I would repeat it any weekend….

 

Winter Park Race #6

Winter Park Race #6 Mountain Top Circuit

 

The decision to compete in this race was a tough one that kept me up almost all the night before contemplating. I talked to quite a few people about it, and the majority of them were pretty against me riding anymore. I knew overall it was my decision to make, and it was only me that would have to live with the consequences.

To make a long story short of the injury that has been haunting me; my left wrist has been giving me lots of problems the last few months. It mainly happens after long rides, and really started after Kokopelli. I went to the doctor, he first told me it was an overuse injury and just give it time to heal. I would, but it never got better. Actually it got worse. And then this last Wednesday while I was riding, something happened, I heard a pop and it caused the most excruciating pain. When I headed back down it was hard to put any pressure on it, and it almost gave out on me a few times. So I decided to go back to the doctor. He pretty much said it was not carpal tunnel like originally thought, and more than likely was from a previous traumatic injury that I have re-injured, and continued to make even worse. So he said I needed to see a hand surgeon, but in order to that I need an MRI, and in order to get the MRI I need an x-ray. So I got the x-ray Friday, and will go in for the MRI in the next week or so. I have been going to my doctor for about 11 years now, so he knows me, and my injuries pretty well. Whenever the subject of restrictions comes up, his answer has always been, “well as your doctor I would have to say take it easy and lay back a little until it heals, but ultimately it is your decision.” Not this time. This time he flat out told me to not ride, or do anything that could injure it even more. Since I have been making it worse, he thinks it is possible that I could make it to the point it will cause permanent damage and even with surgery I might possibly not have a full recovery…

Ok, so maybe that was the long version, but it helped to write it down… so all of the above was going through my head while I was trying to make my decision. Was it right to go against what my doctor was so adamant about? Maybe, but he doesn’t have to know.

I was nervous from the moment I made the decision to do it. I tried really hard not to think about it, but it was really hard, especially when I rode my bike I felt the pain in my wrist. I was lucky to be around my teammates before the start, and really lucky that Marni was with me till the start. Talking to them helped keep my mind in check, somewhat. After looking at the overall stats, Marni and I knew who our main competitions were. We scoped them out and memorized what they looked like. It was actually kind of fun, and it was nice to know that my competition was only one girl, the girl in the pastel shirt, not the whole group. We wished each other luck, and we were off.

The race started up a dirt hill, like always. Fortunately it wasn’t as steep as the other ones, so it wasn’t too much of a killer. The pastel girl started in the lead of the pack, and I kept my eye on her, I figured having something else to concentrate on was good for me at that time. I was able to pass her on the road, and I never saw her again. According to Marni she took a pretty bad spill and she DNF.

The course took a sharp left to start the singletrack. It was downhill for a couple miles, with a narrow trail that had lots of rocks, roots, switchbacks and was even washed out pretty good in some sections. It was definitely a course you really had to pay attention on. I was able to stay with the lead group through the downhill, and it was actually a little frustrating because the trail was so narrow there really was no place to pass, and I was probably 4 deep in girls. The girl that was right in front of me was one that we met in the parking lot, a one day racer that was in our age group. I decided I wasn’t going to let her win, we get annoyed when the one day racers come in and dominate the race. (of course that is only because they always seem to be better than us…) So when we were in the section before we went back down Long Trail, I sprinted up the hill to get in front of her before the singletrack started again. She saw what I was doing, and pushed harder too. I beat her to the trail, which I don’t think she was too happy about… Once the trail hit Gunbarrel it spread out pretty quick, and the one day chick passed me with a vengeance.  I knew it was a fairly long climb so I’m like go for it girl. I was on her back tire by the time the double track started. She was pushing pretty good, and I wasn’t ready to push harder to pass her. There were still quite a few miles to go. She knew I was on her tail, which is why I think she was pushing so hard. When the trail took a right and started to climb, she bonked. She moved to the side and I passed her, hearing her struggling for air. I never saw her again. Once the second lap started I was pretty much alone. I came upon quite a few Sport men, but never really saw any girls again. The second lap was more fun, it wasn’t as crowded so I could get going a bit faster. By the time I got to the end of the lap to where we turned onto Icarius I had passed probably 20 guys, and almost got stuck in a traffic jam at the sharp turn. There were 4 guys piled up heading up the hill, and one by one they bailed the climb and started hiking their bikes. I was able to clear it, which was nice, I didn’t want to be in a big group on the descent.

This was the part I was dreading the whole time. My wrist had survived the laps, but not without pain. I knew this downhill was rough, but I had to push through it. I knew I was in a good position and didn’t want to lose it. The descent wasn’t as bad as I remember it from the pre-ride, but was as bad as I expected on my wrist. I was in tears by the time I was down, but once I hit the bottom I couldn’t help but smile. I knew I wasn’t done yet, but I was getting closer and looking back up the hill, there was no one in sight. I caught another girl on the road descent, although I knew she wasn’t my competition. Across the parking lot I shifted my thinking; I knew the obstacle I still needed to get through.

Jackalope. No words can really describe this, but a saying can. “Are you kidding???” Fortunately I rode it before, so I decided to just stay in a low gear and take it easy over everything. There were three guys in front of me, and two behind. I knew this was not the type of trail to be in a pack on. But two of the guys struggled up the same hill, and I was able to pass them. Soon the third guy failed a technical and I passed him. I have no idea what happened to the guys that were behind me, but it wasn’t long before I was all alone. I did my best to concentrate on the trail. My wrist was throbbing and I was having a hard time steering my bike. I avoided many near crashes throughout the race, but finally, on one of the downhills, my body couldn’t fight it anymore. My left hand gave out and turned my front tire to a 90 degree angle. It seemed to go in slow motion, I knew what was happening, and as I was flying over the handlebars I was screaming “NO!!!” I got up quick and got right back on my bike. I didn’t want to take time to assess the damage or even think about what happened, because I knew it would get to me too much. Fortunately it happened fairly close to the end, I was having a really tough time getting back into it. I struggled through the trees and went off the trail on the final switchback. It took a lot out of me to push through that last section. I knew if I would have crashed any earlier, it would have been the end of my race.

I came up to the road, the final stretch, and heard people cheering for me and squeaking their animals. I was going to finish. It felt so good to finish. I did it, and survived. How, I am not sure, but I did. And not only survived, I somehow beat the girls in my group, taking my first “official” first place medal home.

Overall it was an emotional day for me. The end was not what I expected at all. I came into the race just wanting to finish, knowing it could be my last race of the season. I had done fairly well in the series, and needed one more decent race to clinch the lead spot overall. I was skeptical it would happen, and didn’t think it was going to happen like it did.

If my season is over, I will be disappointed, but I know there is always next year. I may not be able to do some of the races I had planned for the fall, and might have to take some time off the bike for quite a while. If yesterday was my last race, I could live with that. It was amazing, emotional and very unexpected. It would make a good ending to a rollercoaster first season. Whether I race the KoTR next week or not, I will be up there to support and cheer on my team, for we have done amazing overall for our first year. Everyone has accomplished so much, and it will be exciting to see Marni pull of 2^nd in Sport Women overall, and Melissa to take 1^st overall in Beginner Women.

Did I make the right decision in going against doctors orders yesterday? Maybe, but I think I just got lucky. J

Was it worth it? Every last minute.