Durango NORBA National Finals, 27-29 August 2004

Greetings from Durango! It's been a pretty big adventure so far!

Congrats to Mary Carlson- Smiley Chick- 2004 NORBA NMBS XC Series Champion, Expert women 25-29! And to Jessica Neslon, Pink Chick- runner up!

29.aug.04

The amateurs are racin short track right now. I am still at the Residence Inn in Durango- baking cookies and cinnamon rolls for my favorite announcer Larry Longo! The resort is about 30 minutes away- so I will miss Smiley and Pink Chick- which is a bummer!

Mary's bike arrived 30 minutes before her cross country race on Friday. She had a few minutes to get warmed up and race on the course she wasn't able to pre ride. She still wound up 4th, which gave her the overall series championship!

My race was typical. only i had a TErrible! start! For some reason- there is a gravel pit right over the start line, and i just got caught up in it- so off the line I was already in about 30th position. Then up the first climb, as usual I lost a few spots. So at the 30 minute mark I was in about 35th place. But that changed as my legs kicked into gear and I was off, passing 2-4 people at a time, until I found the top of the downhill. At that point, I only passed one more rider, and stayed in 17th for the entire rest of the race. Another top 20, and I finished the series in 13th- a far cry better than my 26th for 2003!

once i finish the baking, i'll head up to the resort and race with the kids in the kids race, and then get to take my turn at my last short track of the series! Can i pull off another good finish? or will it be another bummer of a short track? we shall see!

27.aug.04

It's been an adventure so far! For starters- it took Pink Chick and I 9 hours to get from Longmont to Durango. We had to cancel our clinic because it was 3:00pm, and we were only in Pagosa Springs, still well over an hour from Durango Mountain Resort. This is a 7 hour drive. but with all the construction and traffic, that turned into 9 hours. Wonderful!

The other drama is that Mary's bike didn't make it to Durango. Yesterday, I let her ride my bike for her pre race ride. The bike made it to Phoenix, lost its bag tag and was subsequently sent back to Spokane. It was promised to be here this morning, but we highly doubt it. Once again, I offered Mary to race my bike. fter all, what do you have teammates for?

The Experts race today- supposedly one lap on a 12 mile course! Pros race cross country tomorrow and marathon and short track is all on Sunday! Stay tuned for more!!!