The great race

Sunday was the day of the Great Ski Race, a cross country ski race from Tahoe City to Truckee, totalling 30 km with a bunch of climbing, not sure how much but a bunch. I was intially going to race my bike this day down out of Sacramento, but work and a bunch of other things lead to signing up for this instead. I could not have asked for a more beautiful day, sunny, with a little wind that kept the snow in that perfect condition for fast sking. I wanted to beat my time from last year which was 1hr 40 mins. I was a little worried as I had not skied in a couple of weeks ansd was wonder where the fitness would be. Also on Saturday I ate a big slice of humble pie on a road ride, the Saturday hammer fests, by getting blown out the back. I am not a roadie and have lots to learn in terms of sitting in and all those roadies things. So there I was lined up and ready to go, heart beating fast as the start is always the worst, the gun sounded and we were off. I knew right away that I was doing well as four of us pulled away right away, and soon we were passing people from the group ahead of us and I was happy. THe snow was really fast, and my friend got the wax right so I was ripping along. The snow did not really gett to mashed potatoy or anything and it was great. The down hill has some wicked berms and twist and turns and was a blast, unlike last year where I ended up on my ass a bunch of times, this year I was having a blast and my downhills were on. I did however get passed by Kristen Krone, an ex olympic downhiller who I must say had some skills and let it hang out on the skinny skis. That was Sunday mornng, then I tried to get out of work, no dice and had to work. Not the perfect ending, but the day was one to remember.
Monday was an easy spin followed by about 50 miles yesterday, up Geiger, but I took my friend, who is a complete novice and that kept the pace way down. Today I am packing up the Breakaway, and getting ready to go to Seattle again. I am getting a bike from a friend and going to ride some mtb with Kent Peterson and hopefully Mo lettvin, www.drizzle.com/~lettvin/moblog.html I am super excited, I hope the great Seattle weather holds out. Gotta go, now I have house work to take care of before a little spin and then some relaxin I hope.