On Thursday Sept. 31 we were all up before dawn to catch our flights.  Kym and I met in Chicago and had the same flight to Seattle.  We met Shannon in Seattle, collected our bikes and luggage, piled it all into the rental van and were off for the 6 hour drive to Sun Peaks Resort.

 

Backtracking to the flight from Chicago, the approach into Seattle was breathtaking.  We flew fairly close to Mt. Ranier, which was just beautiful in the sun, even if I could only see it from across the plane.  And the Cascade mountains on my side of the plane were exquisite. 

 

The drive to British Columbia was spectacular as well.  The Seattle traffic was fairly intense, but we managed to stop for our lunch/dinner at a truly excellent Thai/Viet restaurant on our way out of town.  That meal set off the rest of the trip.  

 

As we headed north on I-5 we could see 10,000+ foot Mt. Baker in the distance, dwarfing the 4 and 5 thousand foot peaks in front of it.  WOW.  We passed by it on our way into Canada, and headed toward Kamloops.  One of the sections of our almost-direct route to Kamloops was on a new toll road, also called I-5.  The sharp steep mountains on each side of the road were just beautiful, reflecting the setting sun.

 

We pulled into Kamloops at about 9 or so and knew we had to find a grocery store before getting to our final destination.  We looped back and forth, and were ultimately successful, and did a good job of finding the right things for the three of us to prepare in our condo for the next two and a half days.  I had brought my own bread, cereal and soy powder, but we needed a lot more than that!

 

We finally got to Sun Peaks, about 40 minutes away from Kamloops, at about 10:30.  Our little condo was really inviting by that time!  We put the groceries in the fridge, took out our contact lenses and hit our respective beds hard.  We had all been up for about 24 hours and we could have slept on a rock.  My pull-out sofa felt pretty darned good.

 

We slept late on Friday, and after a leisurely breakfast we steeled ourselves and built our bikes.  Before doing our bikes, though, we walked over to registration and picked up our numbers.  We all got super excited about the upcoming racing.  The resort was a really cool place to be.

 

After the bikes were built we took our first preride.  Ouch.  The climbing featured a one mile section of fire road -- no problem -- and then two very steep sections up ski slopes, and some singletrack climbing as well.  And the descending was super-technical, with narrow and steep dusty-rocky troughs that twisted through the trees.   I knew that I would be running a bit on race day.  We also did an easy preride on Saturday. 

 

We did things besides ride as well.  On Friday night we went to a wine and cheese tasting, going easy on the wine and pretty heavy on the cheese.  What a great combination!  We had water for a chaser, and I surprisingly was none the worse for the wine.  It was really fun to talk with the other folks there.  The event was sponsored by the resort, and a lot of different people comprised the fairly small group.   There were people from all walks of life interested in doing great outdoor things.  There were lots of job openings at the resort.  I mentally made plans to move there and become a ski bum for the winter...   

 

Oh, getting back to the race!

 

Saturday afternoon we went into Kamloops to get CO2 cartridges.  We could not fly with them, so had to pay big bucks for them in Kamloops.  The shop at the resort was out of them so we decided to see what it was like during the day in Kamloops.  It was cool to see that part of the area in the daylight.  As we descended from the lodge-pole pine at 4500 feet we got into what look like high desert with sage and scrubby pines.  It was very dry, even up at the resort, and Kamloops was even drier.  It is a neat town, about 85,000 in population.  One of the best kept secrets, according to one resident that I was drinking wine with at the wine tasting!

 

Mission accomplished, we headed back to Sun Peaks and the UCI cross country rider's meeting and again heard about the plight that befalls a lot of women's racing.  Not enough women.   There were not enough women in certain categories, including mine, so they would be combined as artfully as possible in order to award world championship jersies.  A minimum of 6 is required, and fortunately two years ago we had six in our field.  This year there were two in the 50-54, the other one being a former pro who will not be 50 until December.  However, medals would be given to each age group, so I knew that I would be competing for a medal, and a guaranteed one if I did not get myself too hurt during the race.  I was the oldest woman there.

 

I was nervous for the race, but once the gun went off -- literally, they had a gun and it was LOUD -- I felt OK.  I raced hard.  I was combined in a group of women aged 40 and over, and my competitor got tangled up in the beginning with another racer and crashed.  I managed to stay ahead of her for a while, but I bobbled and she eventually got ahead of me.  Then I dropped my chain, had to put it on manually and she rode away.  I had her in sight on the one mile climb and reeled her in slightly, but she disappeared on the technical descent.  I saw her again as I was climbing the ski slope, but she disappeared again.

 

I made it to the finish line, though, and I was happy with my racing, even if I had to do some downhill running.  I ended up second, and now have another UCI silver medal!  It was not as thrilling as winning the silver in 2004 after beating four other women for it, but it was a thrill none the less.

 

Kym and Shannon were in the same race -- 30-34 -- and their race went out fast and hard.  Kym was in the top three for a while, but eventually got sick in the attempt.  Shannon eventually passed her, having herself an excellent race.  Shannon was 9th and Kym was 14th in the combined 30-39.  Kym was bummed, but because she had not focused on this race (she raced all the NORBA National cross country and short track races as a Pro, deciding on World's fairly late in the game) she was pretty worn out.  We are talking about going to France for World's next year (me, if a money tree grows in my yard,) and if so it will certainly be Kym's main focus. 

 

After the race we had to collect our wits, clean up, eat, etc., and get up the energy to pack up ourselves and our bikes.  Awards were not until 5, and we did not get on the road back to Seattle until almost 5:30.  The drive was again gorgeous, but started getting long at around 11:00!  Kym again did an amazing job on the driving.  Traffic in Seattle was pretty heavy even at 11:30 on a Sunday night, which makes me happy I live in Nowhere, NY.   We found a Motel 6 five minutes from the airport that had a vacancy, and crawled into bed at 12:30.

 

Wake-up call was at 4:30 AM, time to get to the airport.  Kym had a 7:20 flight and Shannon and I had flights departing at 8:20.  I dozed a lot on both of my flights, but not solidly.  I arrived home at 8:30 on Monday evening, and I have done a lot of sleeping and working since then, which is why it has taken me so long to get this narrative out to everyone!

 

Well, now it is time to recover a bit and then it is on to season #3 for me this year -- Cyclocross!  See you all out there.

 

Take care,