Bottle Rocket: August 2008

I was planning on writing something on Fay and then I noticed that Jackie beat me to it. But I can't think of anything else to write about besides the Olympic boxing match I'm watching right now, so...
As many of you know, school started Monday; Same day that Fay was

bombarding the keys. That afternoon, as I watched the storm move up the state on the news, I learned that school on Tuesday was canceled. It was like summer had started again. But I've got to laugh at the school board, because it only rained about once that day. Of course, when we went back on Wednesday and Thursday it rained all day and nearly ever student in the school could been seen huddling under an umbrella or rain coat going classes. Because of the rain our Thursday ride was canceled so I rode my trainer in the garage. I thought I heard a transformer blow and my mom came out to tell me that school was canceled again Friday because some of the schools in the county were flooded or didn't have power. What a great first week of school, only three days of class and we still haven't learned a thing!

Sunlight!

Day 1, Aug. 4th

I don't know where to start... We left OIA at 10:00 AM, had a layover in Albuquerque, changed planes in Phoenix, waited for a delayed flight, and finally made it to Orange County, California at around 3:00 western pacific time(6:00 Florida time). The first thing I noticed when we landed was that everything is brown, there's no green!!!
With the time zone change, even though it was the middle of the afternoon, it was really evening in Florida so I went to bed pretty early.

Day 2, Aug. 5th
The racing didn't start until Wednesday so my mom and I decided to do a bit of sightseeing and drive down the Angeles Crest Highway. It was really pretty, and when we got up to Mount Wilson, we got a beautiful view of Los Angeles. After the long drive back down, we went over the to race hotel to the packet pickup and then drove part of the time trial course before going back to our hotel.

Day 3, Aug. 6th Time Trial
I woke up rather early and lounged around the room because my start time wasn't until 2:15. When we arrived at the time trial start there wasn't a bit of shade to be seen, so my mom went in search of a tent. My warm-up consisted of a few laps of a road near the parking lot and around 2:05 I headed to the start. This year's time trial course consisted of an all-up-hill bike trail and then a long, grinding hill, a blazing downhill, and then an uphill finish. Why they chose to put juniors through that is beyond me (something about CA wouldn't give them the permits to hold the race on a flat road? `:| ) Anyways... While I was racing, I just kept pedaling and trying not to fall over. When I finally finished, only one person passed me, and I passed two, I could hardly stand at roll out. It was very hot and dry so I had horrible cotton mouth, and no water bottle (on a time trial bike?) And with the way the course was set up, I still had a six mile ride back to get to the car, something I didn't plan on doing (and ended up not doing)

Later on, they posted the results and I got 11th in 13-14 with a time of 27:17. Not too bad...

Day 4, Aug. 7th Criterium
Now crits are my thing. I was really looking forward to this race, and hoping to do well. We got there around 9:00 and my race was at 11:00. I warmed up riding around Angels Stadium watching the other races going on until it was time for mine. We lined up, a group of about 25 or so riders and were soon off. Starting on the second lap they rang three consecutive primes, and I won every one. I was felt really good and had a really good chance of getting podium when... SOME KLUTZY, SQUIRRELLY GIRL CRASHED RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!!!!! And to make it worse, in the chaos of everyone crashing around me, I forgot to take a free lap... stupid, stupid, stupid... I didn't remember until a few laps later when it was too late. But I still finished and got 15th. I was planning to do better but I guess it's acceptable.

Day 5, Aug. 8th Road Race

From my disappointing race the day before, I decided that I was going to do my bestest best in the Road Race. Let me tell you now, my brain had not talked with my legs that morning... I hung with the pack fairly well on the first lap, I was rather happy actually. It was when we entered the second lap that the attacking began. One after another, they just attacked until I couldn't hang on any longer, and they rode away from me. I then spent the last lap of the race chasing two girls who dropped just in front of me. My legs were just empty of energy, but I somehow I caught up to and beat one of them, placing 14th out of 24 girls.

Day 6-7, Aug. 9th-10th Home
On Saturday we went back out to the road course to watch Jackie Crowell race... and then later went and drove the pacific coast highway for a bit more sightseeing.
On Sunday we left the airport at around 1:00pm, had to change planes in Las Vegas (I am NEVER going to go there again unless it's to change planes, they had slot machines in the terminal!!!) and then had a four hour flight back to Orlando, arriving at 12:00 (midnight, he, he, as in this morning...Yawn...)

3 Things I could have done better