Rain or Shine. Or Hail.
Sea Otter.
Always a massive effort in many ways. Driving to the event through one of two many-mile entrances with 6 thousand other bike-laden cars, parking, getting from parking through the vendor area over the bridge dodging the mountain bikers through the mud onto the racetrack, then the race itself where you go round and round and up and down 300 feet every 7 minutes, then scraping together some sort of cool down before changing clothes and schmoozing and gossiping with sponsors in the vendor area, all the while trying to stay with your teammates, then remembering where the car is and schlepping all the way back out of the event, oh yeah don't forget to give back your expensive timing chip ankle bracelet thing that supposedly keeps track of you during your race...
I definitely love the action and the fanfare. It's one reason why I always go back. But man, Sea Otter is no joke and definitely no place for the tired or the moody. Not that I am ever either of those things, I am just saying.
Anyway, this year, on top of all the hectic crapola, please add a good dose of nutball weather. Serious nutball weather.
Look how gorgeous the weather was (and also us girls of course, me, Hannah, Taitt, and Martina, L-R) before the start:
Then the skies turned ominous approximately 1 minute before we rolled off the start line.
The wind picked up.
Then it started to rain during the second (I think) of 22 laps.
Then it REALLY started to rain.
Meanwhile the temperature plummeted from 70-ish to 45-ish.
Then it started to hail.
Sideways.
Then there was mad scattering off of the track and into cars and out of spandex and into something, anything, warm and dry. The latter was quite hard to come by. We did 11 laps (again: I think), but due to the rather immediate call-off of the race there was no sprint and there were no results. A wash, literally and figuratively.
After thawing out as best we could, us Team VAC-ers headed into the vendor area to visit our lovely sponsors, buy several warm Ritchey hoodies, drink lots of hot cocoa, and make fun of Sharon's outfit:
Always a massive effort in many ways. Driving to the event through one of two many-mile entrances with 6 thousand other bike-laden cars, parking, getting from parking through the vendor area over the bridge dodging the mountain bikers through the mud onto the racetrack, then the race itself where you go round and round and up and down 300 feet every 7 minutes, then scraping together some sort of cool down before changing clothes and schmoozing and gossiping with sponsors in the vendor area, all the while trying to stay with your teammates, then remembering where the car is and schlepping all the way back out of the event, oh yeah don't forget to give back your expensive timing chip ankle bracelet thing that supposedly keeps track of you during your race...
I definitely love the action and the fanfare. It's one reason why I always go back. But man, Sea Otter is no joke and definitely no place for the tired or the moody. Not that I am ever either of those things, I am just saying.
Anyway, this year, on top of all the hectic crapola, please add a good dose of nutball weather. Serious nutball weather.
Look how gorgeous the weather was (and also us girls of course, me, Hannah, Taitt, and Martina, L-R) before the start:
Then the skies turned ominous approximately 1 minute before we rolled off the start line.
The wind picked up.
Then it started to rain during the second (I think) of 22 laps.
Then it REALLY started to rain.
Meanwhile the temperature plummeted from 70-ish to 45-ish.
Then it started to hail.
Sideways.
Then there was mad scattering off of the track and into cars and out of spandex and into something, anything, warm and dry. The latter was quite hard to come by. We did 11 laps (again: I think), but due to the rather immediate call-off of the race there was no sprint and there were no results. A wash, literally and figuratively.
After thawing out as best we could, us Team VAC-ers headed into the vendor area to visit our lovely sponsors, buy several warm Ritchey hoodies, drink lots of hot cocoa, and make fun of Sharon's outfit:
Labels: bikes, enjoy the blog, racing, Team VAC
posted by Courtenay at 4/15/2007
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