Gloucester, and a rollerski time trial*

*By time trial, I mean "race against your teammates". This is the way skiers think of time trials. If you're a biker and you're confused, think of it as a training race.

I only raced one day at Gloucester this year, because I remembered how much I hated it last year. I didn't really enjoy it any more this year, I don't know why I bother with this course, it only makes me angry. Not only that, I forgot to pre-register (I could have sworn I registered, but I guess I only thought I did), so it was a $50 race. Youch.



I lined up in the back, whistle goes off, I'm stuck behind people who aren't exactly sure where to start looking for their pedals, and then theres a bang and some girl in light blue fades abruptly from my peripheral vision. Not ten seconds later, her teammate, up ahead of me, swerves back and forth a couple times and then falls over. How do you even manage that one? I was on the side, so I got around these minor issues. The first part of that lap went smoothly, I was comfortable and quite happy with where I was sitting, it even felt sustainable, which is not a normal thing in a cross race. Then on the off-camber loopety-loop thing (by the baseball diamond), I rode into a wooden post, rather forcefully, and bounced off of it onto my head and back, which knocked the wind out of me and caused quite a headache. Doh. After that the race was pretty boring, I chased as hard as I could, caught two girls, and never caught up to Callie, riding in no-man's land for the remaining 4 laps. Yay. I'm obviously quite enthused with my race.



Still in a negative slump, I headed out to Concord for a rollerski time trial with CSU sunday. We had a pretty big crowd, which was great given that its a holiday weekend. The time trial was two flatter laps and then finish at the top of Annursnac hill, classic. I had trouble going hard enough on the flat stuff, but it was fast enough to keep up with Chris Stock (winner of eastern highschools classic race last winter) for the flat parts. Then it went uphill, and there was nobody around me but I felt fast, and more importantly, I looked fast. Afterwards, I skied to Kimball Farms for some ice cream. That was worth the extra distance =)


Looking fast.


We're a sophisticated bunch, we have high tech ways of carrying clip boards.


Kimball Farms: Doing their part to prevent childhood obesity (this is a kiddie cone).


Foliage in Concord MA

Then I got home and decided on a whim that I couldn't spend another day in Boston, I had a day off and gosh darn if I wasn't going to use it. So I decided to brave the leaf-peepers and go north and hike something. Kathleen happily joined me on three-hour notice, and we ran over the Moats in North Conway. Beautiful day for a hike! We also discovered that the blueberries still on the bushes tasted delicious, like concentrated little explosions of blueberriness! Hike over and soul rejuvenated, I sat in stop and go traffic for almost four hours to get home. Worth it, though.


Foliage in NH

Thinking on it, I-93 is the giant pipeline for leaf-peepers, skiers, and day-hikers to get north and invade the mountains. Without that escape, I don't think my sanity would last too long down here...