Home again
It's hard to believe the weekend is over and I'm already back at home. It seems like everything happened so fast!
Yesterday was a rough day. I hate flying when I'm sick. My ears hurt so bad descending into O'Hare and I was basically miserable the whole day. I've taken today off from work though as I was so sick when I got home last night that there was no way I was going to be able to get up and go to work. I would have been useless anyway and just sat in my office with my head on my desk. I know I'm a bum for taking the day off when everyone else had to go back to work and be tired and crabby.
My thoughts from Monday . . . . Dave and I had a really nice chat with Richard Fries as he was staying on the same floor of the Biltmore as us so we got to ride in the elevator with him a couple of times. Very nice guy and we let him know that we really appreciated the work that he did to make the event a success. We also had a few more spottings of Todd Wells as he and his family were staying acorss the hall from us. He had a fancy pair of cracked carbon bars sitting out in the hallway most of the weekend. I also had a nice chat with Jon Hansen from Team Nerac.com who I met in Detroit. He is such a nice guy. He told me that there was a crazy after-party on Sunday night back at the Biltmore that lasted until about 3am. Seems the people hosting the party got stuck with a $100 room cleaning bill as things got a bit out of control. I wonder if the Biltmore will want to be the host hotel ever again. I bet their valet parkers are opposed as we all arrived and left at the same time and it took us forever to load and unload our mountain of gear and bikes. I hope that everyone tipped them as the valets had a thankless job all weekend.
In other news, I now have a favorite Rhode Island city name - Woonsocket. That is even better than Pawtucket where we had lunch on Monday before we flew home. We didn't get out and about in the area too much but those were the best names from our Monday of pretending to Christmas shop. We couldn't though as we had no room in our bags for presents but we did buy ourselves a can opener. I know that sounds lame but if you knew how much upper body strength our current can opener required you would realize how exciting that is for a stick arm girl like myself. What with the new can opener and cross season over maybe I'll cook more (oh wait, ski season has already started so probably not).
So I have to admit there was a point in the weekend where I wondered if I would go back to Nationals. It seemed like such a production getting your bike packed up and remembering all the possible items you will need especially given the weather in December. It almost seemed like too much especially given the cost for the weekend. I had to wonder if it was all worth it especially when the best I could hope for was mid-pack and given my illness the best I could hope for was to be able to finish.
However, it is also really cool to be there racing against so many people. How often does a person get to line up with such a large competitive field? There were almost 90 women on the line in my race with all the different categories. Even though I was sick and drifting fast towards the back of the pack there were always women around me. How cool is that??? Plus there you are with over a thousand other people who love cross. However, it will be nice when the event is just a moderate drive away in Kansas City and we can just pack up the car and take everything we need.
Next year will be easier as I already have a sense of what I would do differently (no more 7:30am flights no matter the savings!) and things I would take, etc. etc. I hope that lots of other Midwesterners will join me next year. Maybe we could even reserve a spot for a Midwestern gathering one night for dinner. That way MN, IA, WI, and IL riders could get to know each other and could cheer for one another. I know I thought it was crazy cool having people cheering for me all over the course even though I was in Rhode Island.
I also want to give a "shout out" to Jim, Kurt, Chris and Dave who were trapped in a hotel room with me and my infectious germs. I hope that none of them get sick!
Yesterday was a rough day. I hate flying when I'm sick. My ears hurt so bad descending into O'Hare and I was basically miserable the whole day. I've taken today off from work though as I was so sick when I got home last night that there was no way I was going to be able to get up and go to work. I would have been useless anyway and just sat in my office with my head on my desk. I know I'm a bum for taking the day off when everyone else had to go back to work and be tired and crabby.
My thoughts from Monday . . . . Dave and I had a really nice chat with Richard Fries as he was staying on the same floor of the Biltmore as us so we got to ride in the elevator with him a couple of times. Very nice guy and we let him know that we really appreciated the work that he did to make the event a success. We also had a few more spottings of Todd Wells as he and his family were staying acorss the hall from us. He had a fancy pair of cracked carbon bars sitting out in the hallway most of the weekend. I also had a nice chat with Jon Hansen from Team Nerac.com who I met in Detroit. He is such a nice guy. He told me that there was a crazy after-party on Sunday night back at the Biltmore that lasted until about 3am. Seems the people hosting the party got stuck with a $100 room cleaning bill as things got a bit out of control. I wonder if the Biltmore will want to be the host hotel ever again. I bet their valet parkers are opposed as we all arrived and left at the same time and it took us forever to load and unload our mountain of gear and bikes. I hope that everyone tipped them as the valets had a thankless job all weekend.
In other news, I now have a favorite Rhode Island city name - Woonsocket. That is even better than Pawtucket where we had lunch on Monday before we flew home. We didn't get out and about in the area too much but those were the best names from our Monday of pretending to Christmas shop. We couldn't though as we had no room in our bags for presents but we did buy ourselves a can opener. I know that sounds lame but if you knew how much upper body strength our current can opener required you would realize how exciting that is for a stick arm girl like myself. What with the new can opener and cross season over maybe I'll cook more (oh wait, ski season has already started so probably not).
So I have to admit there was a point in the weekend where I wondered if I would go back to Nationals. It seemed like such a production getting your bike packed up and remembering all the possible items you will need especially given the weather in December. It almost seemed like too much especially given the cost for the weekend. I had to wonder if it was all worth it especially when the best I could hope for was mid-pack and given my illness the best I could hope for was to be able to finish.
However, it is also really cool to be there racing against so many people. How often does a person get to line up with such a large competitive field? There were almost 90 women on the line in my race with all the different categories. Even though I was sick and drifting fast towards the back of the pack there were always women around me. How cool is that??? Plus there you are with over a thousand other people who love cross. However, it will be nice when the event is just a moderate drive away in Kansas City and we can just pack up the car and take everything we need.
Next year will be easier as I already have a sense of what I would do differently (no more 7:30am flights no matter the savings!) and things I would take, etc. etc. I hope that lots of other Midwesterners will join me next year. Maybe we could even reserve a spot for a Midwestern gathering one night for dinner. That way MN, IA, WI, and IL riders could get to know each other and could cheer for one another. I know I thought it was crazy cool having people cheering for me all over the course even though I was in Rhode Island.
I also want to give a "shout out" to Jim, Kurt, Chris and Dave who were trapped in a hotel room with me and my infectious germs. I hope that none of them get sick!
posted by MadCross at 12:07 PM
1 Comments:
Cool blog Renee! Yay, another one to add to my list of things distracting me from what I'm supposed to be doing at any given moment...
Good for you for going to Nationals. I'd like to do it one of these years, but perhaps I should get just a few more races under my belt before I attempt it! I'd love to represent the fine, frozen north, if I ever get results that mean anything. Maybe we could have a midwest composite team sponsored by Eskimo Pies or something.
But hey, we have been blessed big time with so much snow, so I'm sure I'll see your out and about on the sticks. (Tomorrow, Elver, 9 a.m. if you're free)
I got the $15 in the mail, by the way, so thanks. I bought my sister's Christmas present.
OK, back to homework.
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