CROSS + ? = GROSS

You know those word puzzles where you change a letter each time to get from one word to another? Well, you can get from cross to gross in one turn!! And I did that - one hard right hand, off camber turn at Pike Peaks Supercross last Saturday turned cross into gross for me. This was my first race of the season, and I was psyched. I won the first lap prime and wanted to get a bigger gap so kept the speed high. There were a total of four barrier sections, two singles on run ups and doubles on the flat sections. Flat for me means go fast! So I was going fast, and wow, then there's a hard right, downhill, off camber turn. The first time, I kind overshot it and went into the "rough" but recovered. The second time I went down. I quickly realized nothing was broken, and I got back on my bike. Soon, my arm started hurting. Then I was flicking blood off my arm because I didn't like feeling it dripping down my arm. Then I looked at it. Ick. Big gash. I kept going to the start/finish line and stopped. Nine hours later, I had 20 or so stitches (several layers - cut to the muscle fascia) in my arm and a few in my knee. If you want the bloody details, here's the picture that I had the RN snap with my phone before she cleaned it out. No, I don't know what that is hanging out of my wound. Pretty gross, huh? Not all was lost. I was totally happy with my form. I wasn't stutter stepping when I mounted the bike and I was getting over the barriers quickly. Now to get my handling skills where my fitness is.

I am doing OK and even made it to cyclocross practice this afternoon. My form wasn't great, but I was glad to be out there. Don't think I'll race this weekend which means I'll have to hit the Frisco races the first weekend in October!

L.A.Z.Y.

ok, so i've gotten lazy with the blogging thing. we went to NYC and had a great time. So nice just to be on our own schedule with no races, no kids, no commitments, just us, the city and a morning latte. after 9 years of being caffeine free, i'm back off the wagon. anyway, ken flew home and i flew to Austin, TX and then ended up in Brenham, TX (population for 2000 was 14, 373) for my 20th high school reunion. I was very pleased to find that I was one of the very few who had not gained 20 lbs in the last 20 years. One of the highlights was talking with Starlie Graves who at 36 is training for the 08 Olympics and is likely to make the squad. She was 5th at the trials in 04. She's a long jumper and she was on my first-in-the-nation (thanks Hershey Chocolate) 4x100 meter relay team when we were kids and then all of my state champion relays in high school. oh, those were the days...so the reunion was lots of fun. I'm really glad I went. Missed the 10th but I heard it was a dud.

So now, on to CYCLOCROSS! I love cross because it's no pressure for me. I do it totally for fun and to get some intensity in once a week. I learned my lesson with a broken collarbone my first year of cross and now I will not let my ego, enthusiasm or bike handling skills get ahead of my fitness which is why I crashed. yes, all on my own, just going way too fast and not having the bike handling skills to manage my speed and the muddy pit that I was launched off of...

Oh, one last thing. While I was gone, my beloved Apple Powerbook's charger died which means I am using Ken's old laptop and can't get any pictures up on the blog or to send out to those lovely folks from TX who I had not seen in 20 years until last weekend.

Manhattan bike tour

Kimmy and I went on a bike ride around town yesterday.
This is the route we took.

Riding in midtown traffic on cheesy bikes is fun.....

Then we ditched our bikes and went to Times Square.

The Hats

So we're at Battery Park in NYC and Kimberly sees this guy selling umbrella hats.

You'll notice that they are National Champion hats. Hammer Racing has a need here.

The guy wants $12.00 each, or two for $20.00. Kimmy asks how much for ten, and he suggests $50.00 ($5 each). We think that 10 is too many, so Kimmy suggests seven for $30.00 ($4.29 each) and the guy accepts.

We do the deal and then realize that we really need ten after all, so Kimberly chases the guy down (he's trying to escape, I think) and offers him $12.00 for three more hats, claiming that it's now up to our original deal for ten hats. He accepts and we now have ten hats for $42.00 ($4.20 each).

These NYC hawkers are supposed to be tough cookies, but I guess they just aren't tough enough.....

The Big Apple

We made it into NYC without issue. Staying at this hotel. Pretty sweet room with a flat panel TV in the black marble bathroom. The room doesn't have free WiFi but there's a great little cafe around the block. anyway, here are some photos from our first few hours here.

Outside of Port Authority.

NYC rat.

There's a bike shop right across from our hotel and we're hoping to tool around Central Park one day. The bike shop is named Master Bike and there's a Pita Grill next door. Some Hammerers will appreciate that.

evening session - last day...and the party

Our 40+ team sprint took GOLD! The 30 and 50+ teams took silver. Deb and I took bronze and shaved a second off our qualifying time. We were very happy with that. Not sure where the fifth place team is on our podium.

The after party needs little explaining - just check out the photos.

Now Kenny and I are off to Manhattan...

last day - BETTY JOES TAKE THE GOLD!!

The big news of the day is that the Hammer Betty Jo pursuit team took GOLD in the 3k team pursuit. We were seeded last so got to see what the comp did. We thought we could take gold but there had already been a number of crashes in the men's team pursuits so we needed to ride safely but still go hard. Well, we did just that and crushed the competition by 8 seconds. Ken didn't have the camera for the podium shot but here we are after we'd just finished. It was definitely the most fun event of the week. There's nothing quite like sticking a good pursuit exchange at speed. We got lots of compliments on how smooth we looked. I have to say, we really ROCKED and as I heard the announcer say with two laps to go, "They really put the HAMMER down!!"

Earlier that morning Deb and I did the team sprint. We were seeded in the final heat with Annette Hanson and Linda Foti. We ended up qualifying 3rd and will ride for the bronze medal tonight. I was pretty beat after that event. The last 1/2 lap felt like it took forever. I didn't realize how hard it is doing that second lap by myself after sucking wheel for a lap! I think we'll probably go faster tonight, but unfortunately, the best we can get is bronze.

All three Hammer men's teams qualified for the gold medal rides tonight, so we're looking at more jerseys for the team.

And then is the famous Hammer Racing after party.... :-)