Sea Otter 2008

Again, I'm missing the pictures, sigh. B had the camera in Lake Placid, and while I took my bulky 35mm to Sea Otter hoping that my creativity would surface, it didn't, and nary a shot was taken.

*****ALERT ALERT, WORDINESS TO FOLLOW*****

(I pulled a lot of this from my writeup on the Velo Bella boards so for those of you who read both, sorry for the duplication!)

All winter I alternated between excitement for the Sea Otter downhill and apprehension...stemming from my rough season last year. After the Angel Fire debacle last year, I slowly eased back onto the bike, but for the remainder of the summer was scared, wimpy, riding my brakes, too tentative. Now, after a lot of PT and a winter of recovery, would I still be scared?

Connie and I left at the butt-crack of dawn on Thursday in her Honda Element, and 14 hours later pulled into Cali. 5 bikes, 2 people, ton of biking gear, and heaps of other stuff plus room for all the gear we'd be taking home with us, and we were still comfortable...I gotta get one!

Friday was our first day on the practice course, and I took a slow first run to get a feel for it. Second run, let it ride a little faster, and it felt awesome. Third run, let it go all out.....and almost rattled myself off a section of brake bumps since I was on my medium bike (5" suspension). OOPS!

For the 4th run, I borrowed Connie's bigger downhill bike (8" suspension), and let it rip! It was so beautiful! Flowy and smooth, I felt in the zone and in the groove, relaxed and absorbing the course. Yay! I could have ridden all day, but by then practice was over. Our faces got a workout from smiling too.

Earlier, Connie and I had decided to race in the beginner/sport singlespeed XC race Friday afternoon (why? we'll never know), and we geared up for that after finishing DH practice. In a skinsuit, an XC helmet, with a bottle of Cytomax, at the start giggling at the absurdity of what I'm about to do. Whistle goes off, and I'm pedalling, struggling to keep up with the women whose legs appeared invincible, and by the first turn I'm already tired! about 10 miles in

It was a sweet course though (except the miles of uphill fire-road at the end), and since I was just "out for a ride" I took the chance to enjoy the scenery. Sheep, a hawk, rolling green hills, the breeze, it was awesome. Successfully surfed down the beach without tangling with anyone, felt good about making it up a large portion of the climbs (the remainder were walked), and overall had a blast. About 10 miles in, I realized that the "10-mile" beginner course wasn't 10 miles...but that's ok. 14 is much more respectable!

Back to DH - no practice on Saturday, which was a good thing, since I don't know about Connie but my legs were HATING me from the XC race!!! We hung out at the tent, visited with the other Bellas, made new friends, walked around Sea Otter, and had a grand time.

Sunday morning, practice. Our bikes were all decked out in glittery pipe cleaners and rhinestones and ribbons, and we were just loving the course. In fact, I had to force myself to stop practicing to keep from being too tired for the uphill pedally sections. Yes, uphill on a downhill course, but I couldn't complain since it's one of the most fun courses I've been on otherwise!

Finally, time for the race. I'm sitting in the gate, feeling stunned that it's already Sea Otter, it's already the bike season, it's already time to race, it's going to be all over in 3 minutes, then...

Beep, beep, beep, BEEP! I pedal into the first corner, and Success #1: no braking through the corner, yay! Into the doubles section, and while I don't clear them, I have Success #2: smoothly suck up the bumps and get the right crossover into the bermy switchbacks. Success #3: no braking through the switchbacks! Success #4: no hesitation on the teensy-weensy rock I've been hesitating on!

Then I hit Failure #1: the first pedally climb. My legs are SO TIRED! I try to stand in the pedals but just crawl up the hill. 2-3 seconds lost there, so sad! Failure #2: I hesitate at the top of the steep rutted sand section, but once I'm in it I let it go fast. Still lost some time. Failure #3: same as #1, almost no pedalling up the second hill. Sigh, more time lost.

Then, Success #4: no brakes through the bottom of the course, with the exception of into a sharper corner or two, but nowhere near the amount I usually do, so I'm overcoming my fear, yay!

My finish was a 3:02, which put me into 29th place, and which was 9 seconds off the girls I'd like to finish with. Since my only real issue was lack of pedalling, and I did well on the rest of the course, overall I'm pretty stoked! She's back!

AND, overall the successes outweigh the failures, and the failures are just lessons to learn from. I know, I know, the SS XC probably wasn't the smartest idea for leg soreness, but it's Sea Otter and supposed to be a good time, and the XC race was one of the most fun and crazy things I've ever done!

And that's all she wrote!