Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Team Boulder Hood Hooligans

Ryan, in his post celebratory stupor, came up with the next name of our Ski to Sea team for 2009. A combination of our initial 2007 team (Boulder Holders) and this year's High Country Hoodlums - it's pretty fitting.

The good times started last Wednesday when Cam flew into town and accompanied Ryan and I down to SeaTac to watch Ryan race. They had to first try and fix Ry's bike though - he was having some shifting issues.



Cam helped dial him in though. As we were driving south we hit some major rain clouds and got dumped on - to which Cam fully offered Ryan the bail option. But Ry was game for some muddy punishment and the skies actually ceased raining when we arrived! Game on! Cam and I chuckled as we watched the BRI guys chug a bear each lap, expanding one dude's belly to the point where it looked like he was going to explode! Mountain bikers have got it figured out - that's for sure! Do you think you'd ever see a roadie do a chug a lap during a practice race? No way! Something to aspire to, I suppose.



That night we had Cam and Roanne over for a yummy dinner and laughed the rest of the night away. Turns out they may be moving back from SLC! Yay!!!

A little gardening out in my amazing yard - see if you can spot Makiah amongst the weeds!


Fast forward to Friday - racing got canceled due to rain so I headed to Karen's house for a roller workout. We spun away to the hilarious comedy Knocked Up.

Saturday morning we slept in - something that NEVER happens on the weekends since one of us is usually out and about climbing or racing. We loaded Maggie (our '90 VW Westy) down with three bikes, and a canoe and headed North to B'ham.



Traffic was surprisingly light and we cruised right up the five. Ry's grandma was visiting at his mom's house so we got to chat and catch up with her and Molly for a little while before heading out on a 4 hour tour of Whatcom County. We headed out Chuckanut, toward Alger, around the south end of lake Whatcom, back around the north end to pre-ride the North Shore Circuit race course - and admired all of the green green grass and blossoming Rhody's. People were out everywhere! It was an amazing day!



These are the train tresses we used to jump off of in college. It's probably been about 10 years since we were both out there last!



Self portrait of Mr. T.



Part of the North Shore Circuit race. Boy am I glad they moved the race date from snowy March to August! They should hold it at that time of year anyways...

The following morning we woke up at 5am and headed East on 542. Cam was our ringer for the skate ski, Bryan did the downhill, Roanne ran and handed off to me. Go Team!

I ran into Guy at the biking start and hung with him until Roanne came in. It's funny how nervous people get! A friend of mine was doing the biking for the first time and came up to say hello as I was spinning on the rollers and grabbed my handle bars. Apparently she was so nervous, she didn't even notice I was on them! She packed three powerbars, 25 cliff shots, and two water bottles - I told her she'd be fine. :) Then another dude at the transition was so nervous, he lost his balance and fell into me. It was chaos!

I zoomed down the hill and enjoyed the turns - they were much easier this year! I must say though - I spun out quite a bit and need bigger gearing for next year. :) I came in 4 minutes faster than my time last year and handed off to Ryan. Unfortunately the officials decided to cancel the canoe leg because of the high water mark - which was probably smart. But it let a lot of people down who had made the long journey to Bellingham.



With a two hour start delay for the mountain bikers, John was raring to go! He crushed it on his bike and placed 34th overall! Not bad out of 440 people. He then handed off to Reif who battled his way through a white capped Bellingham Bay to the finish. While we were walking down to Marine Park, we ran into Tom, Trish and Riley.



Normally the mayors of Bellingham, Trish couldn't believe they didn't run into a single person they knew down in Fairhaven! It was madness. Not that Riley minded though.



We made the drive south on Monday - and Ryan went climbing with Patrick at New Halem. Later that night we met back up with Cam and Roanne and went to see Gonzo: Hunter S. Thompson the film presented by SIFF. It was super entertaining. Gonzo was a trip! What a way to end an incredible weekend...

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