saturday track happenings

when i got down to hellyer, peter bohl insisted they do some measuring of my bike and then weigh it. i weighed in at 8.3 kilos-- not too shabby, sans derailleur, brakes, and all that other road bike stuff. really, that is just a number; i had no clue what this meant and if this was good or bad, so i took 8.3 kg as prerogative to say "i won" and proceed to jump up and down. (but that usually isn't so smart in your bike cleats, fyi.)

racing was a blast this saturday. fast fast fast. i put on a smaller gear this week, and felt ten times faster. maybe next time i should take off another 4" and go to 78". sprinting is way more fun whilst spinning your brains out.

keirin was a blast. it was starla's (from dolce vita) first track race-- and it was blast racing the keirin with her. the 45 yr old men typically let the ladies take whatever position they want, and never make us shove around for anything... so it was really fun to actually push and fight for position and stuff. i thought it was even ten times more awesome cause the keirin was starla's first track race, and she just got in there all aggressive and was kicking major ass. it will be a blast racing with her this year! i am very excited!

next up was the scratch race, which was pretty uneventful...except the last couple laps where i thankfully got on the right wheel. i wouldn't give myself much credit for that though, cause i think the dude whose wheel i caught yelled something along the lines of "get on my wheel, i am attacking now!" perhaps that wasn't his exact words, but he definitely yelled something, so that makes it easy for stupid people like me who sometimes miss moves. thanks dude for the heads up and the ride. i sprinted pretty hard in that race, and then you might as well have stuck a fork in me.

the last two races, win 'n out and points race, i was done for. i am sure it wasn't pretty watching me. actually i can guarantee it. negative snap. suddenly my 82 inch gear felt like a 92 inch gear. near the end of the points race, i even though: "damn, i can't turn this gear -- it is HUGE" and then i felt like a big lame-o, cause i remembered, "no, beth, it is not huge. you geared down dumbass. you are just weak sauce." just as i was contemplating the mystery of my gear, little hanan blew by me so fast that her tiny butt got even more tiny in less than a second. that was a hell of a kick. but the real awesomeness of that points race was AliDot absolutely killing it with a sweet attack the last several laps -- that even if everyone wanted to -- we could never have chased down cause she was so strong and fast. it was pretty rockin'.

anyway, fun day for sure. kinda funny how you can feel on top of the world for two races, and then like a piece of crap for the next two...but that is really the nice thing about track. you can usually leave at least feeling happy about one race, and just forget the other ones even happened if you did crappy. well, that is me. i try to be optimistic and ignore my shortcomings.

then i went home and took justin to the marymaroon burrito place. i say that because she took me and alicia there once, so i now call it her burrito shop. he was weak and did not finish his burrito. i pretty much felt like crap the rest of the day and on sunday too--but on sunday i did run into panda on tunnel rd and got to see the pink lady! long live the pink lady!