What a great weekend

I met Matt, Bill and a few of Matt’s friends down at Murphy on Saturday morning. I’ve only been to Murphy once before and you all remember how well that turned out. I was uneasy about going back. I looped the beginners course a few times then conquered the fear and went into the Intermediate course. Once in…there was no turning back. I took it slow since it was muddy from the rain they got the night before. Last year I fell about 10 times that first loop around the intermediate course. This year—zero! They changed the course from last time—the more technical stuff was at the end now. Matt is letting me use his full suspension Kline—I’m sold on the full suspension. It’s a much softer ride then the hardtail. Matt rode Superbee—she looked good aside from getting stripped of her gears. Poor thing.

My MTB was cut short because the Women’s Made Real had a course training at the State Fair. I needed to learn how to technically and efficiently do crits with corners. There was a great turn out about 30 women showed—mostly cat 3 and 4’s. We broke up into groups and practiced cornering. We started slow…but after getting comfortable the speed picked up. Although the coach said we were going at crit speeds we all knew it would be much faster and tighter during the race.

After the training a bunch of us got something to eat and headed out for a hour and a half ride. We went down Grand did a couple of loops to confuse me where we were and then headed up Ohio Street. Then backtracked the Stone Arch ride to Minneapolis and then back to the fairgrounds. We were flying around turns, sprinting to signs. It was a blast! Good thing Channel 5 wasn’t out with their cameras.

I met up with a high school friend for dinner Saturday night and got caught in the storm. I tried to outrun the storm but only got a block away before I surrendered. I’ve never heard hail come down before while in a vehicle. It was so loud. At one point I covered by face thinking that the windshield was going to break. It didn’t, but turns out I have hail damage on the hood and the roof of my Jeep. Three windshield replacements, hit twice from behind, and now hail damage…Is this just a higher power telling me that I should not own this Jeep? What luck.

Sunday morning I met Dave H., Holly, and Carol down at Stone Arch. We headed out to St. Paul after dodging the 5K runners. We met another Loon along the way, he rode with us during part of the course. Carol was nervous about the ride since this was her first time this season doing the course. Holly, Dave, and I sketched out a plan earlier in the week…but didn’t tell Carol. Knowing her she would be even more worried and possibly would have canceled. The first part of the plan was the same. The last part of the ride was a little different, we were going to hit the Ramsey hill area three times. Starting with the Ramsey hill—that thing is so intimidating, loop around then go up Grand (left side of the Ramsey hill), loop around and then go up the switchback roads on the right side of the Ramsey hill. Carol did great going up the Ramsey hill she followed us not realizing we took a right, instead of going straight. She was pleased with her performance and said it was fun and that we should do it again—as a joke. I looked back at her and said we were. The look on her face was great! Her look got even better when I told her that we were going to do it two more times. At that point I told her our plan and why we didn’t tell her. She was thankful that she didn’t know or she would have done what I predicted.

I still had energy left and it was such a great weekend that all I wanted to do was ride. Heck…I’m single—why not?! I called up my neighbor and we headed out for a ride around the lakes. I love the area I live in, within 5 miles we were right next to Minnetonka Lake in Wayzata. He seemed to know who lived in the big houses so it felt more like a tour. We stopped in Excelsior for coffee and found a patch of grass by the lake and watched the hundreds of unique people walk by.

Tomorrow starts the State Fair Crit, the women's race is at 5:15pm—WTF? If it was just down the street who can make it there by that time? I'll have to earn brownie points at work to get out early. I’m disappointed to find out that my fourth place at the last OPUS is not going to count in the Woman’s Made Real Series due to the inaccuracy of the scoring for the race. Again WTF?