As many of you may be aware I am new to the sport of mountain biking. When you read that you can also read, "not very good yet". So what do you do when your goal is just to finish the race, but you want to make sure you still win the race? Well that's easy you look like a winner. In my case, a solid gold winner.
The majority of my outfit was scrapped together through the cornucopia of options on eBay and Amazon. However I put my own magic into making and amazing helmet cover.
I made the decision early that I wanted to be a unicorn. Then again, who doesn't? I wanted to roll down that hill with all the majesty and grace of that mythical beast. Once more I beg the question, who doesn't? I ordered a gold lamé leotard, a fancy neon tutu, and the most amazing leggings to ever grace a person's body. All I now required was a helmet cover that was sufficiently amazing to make my transformation complete. That's where my knitting skills came in. I found this unicorn hat pattern for free on Ravelry.com. It was simple to follow and I only added a few extra stitches at the outset to accommodate my helmet.
Admittedly not my neatest stitching but I did it in one night and it was absolutely perfect for the race! The hardest part was putting the hair in for the main. It was 30 sections of hand hooked yarn. Trying though it was, once it was finished, it was magical! Then coupled with the whole outfit? How could one resist it!
The wifey and I had a ton of fun getting ready to go to the race and driving up. She requested a mini birthday hat to tie to her helmet, which I whipped up that morning. Of course we needed to see it on her as well as on all of the dogs. As you will see it was a completely natural morning, nothing out of the ordinary.
Even packing up the car was a blast! This race was all my wife wanted to do for her birthday and we were having fun from the moment we got up.
We got lunch and stopped at 3 Brothers Brewery in Harrisonburg, VA to pick up some brew for post race celebration. We of course got some gourmet diet root beer for the dear wife's post race imbibement.
Upon arriving at Bryce Mountain, we unloaded our bikes and got kitted up for the race. Clearly I look amazing.
The race itself was fun. I was predictably back of the pack, but I absolutely made it to the bottom of the hill without incident. I am perfectly comfortable with that considering it was my sixth time on a mountain bike at all, my first time doing downhill, and also my first time doing it on snow.
At the start of the race you had to run to your bike for the start. I think this may have been the only time I was front of the pack. A friend of ours Mark, got some great pictures of the race start.
My dear wife however had a slight mishap on her trial run. When I got down to the bottom she said that she had wiped out and that she was sore. I asked if she wanted to go and she predictably said no that she wanted to head back up for the actual race portion of the day. So we did the race after which she was more sore, but still wanted to stay for dinner with the gang from Bike Stop of Culpeper (far and away the best bike shop ever) and then she drove us home.
Upon getting home however we realized that she couldn't lift anything, it hurt too bad, and then when she tried to lay down she was in agony. We took her to Urgent Care and they did something called a compression test. This is apparently where some sadistic doctor squeezes you exactly where your pain is to see if you've broken your rib or pulled a muscle. Based on her excruciatingly painful screams our personal sadist decided that she had a broken rib at least, and probably in two places. She then went into shock and passed out. She stood for one X-ray and then passed out again so we ixnayed any further X-rays. She doesn't really remember urgent care, she continually exclaimed, "This is SO stupid!", "I didn't even place", and "I didn't even get a medal". Her greatest pain in all of this was not placing, gosh I love this woman.
She's resting and wrapped in an ace bandage and regularly taking ibuprofen is feeling slightly better. Her greatest disappointment is having to be off her bike for four weeks and not medalling of course. After all that she is still very glad we did the race. We did have a very good day.
The wifey and I had a ton of fun getting ready to go to the race and driving up. She requested a mini birthday hat to tie to her helmet, which I whipped up that morning. Of course we needed to see it on her as well as on all of the dogs. As you will see it was a completely natural morning, nothing out of the ordinary.
Even packing up the car was a blast! This race was all my wife wanted to do for her birthday and we were having fun from the moment we got up.
We got lunch and stopped at 3 Brothers Brewery in Harrisonburg, VA to pick up some brew for post race celebration. We of course got some gourmet diet root beer for the dear wife's post race imbibement.
Upon arriving at Bryce Mountain, we unloaded our bikes and got kitted up for the race. Clearly I look amazing.
At the start of the race you had to run to your bike for the start. I think this may have been the only time I was front of the pack. A friend of ours Mark, got some great pictures of the race start.
Robin at the race start looking fierce.
I am on the far left, with Deb next to me, and Robin next to her.
This is where you can really see my unicorn like speed. Look at that stance!
What'd I tell yah front of the pack!
This is where it started to wane, as I reached my bike.
The women all the way on the right were some super competitive downhillers from Richmond, they were hardcore.
This dear readers is where I got on my bike and proceeded to drive Miss Daisy all the way down the hill.
My dear wife however had a slight mishap on her trial run. When I got down to the bottom she said that she had wiped out and that she was sore. I asked if she wanted to go and she predictably said no that she wanted to head back up for the actual race portion of the day. So we did the race after which she was more sore, but still wanted to stay for dinner with the gang from Bike Stop of Culpeper (far and away the best bike shop ever) and then she drove us home.
Upon getting home however we realized that she couldn't lift anything, it hurt too bad, and then when she tried to lay down she was in agony. We took her to Urgent Care and they did something called a compression test. This is apparently where some sadistic doctor squeezes you exactly where your pain is to see if you've broken your rib or pulled a muscle. Based on her excruciatingly painful screams our personal sadist decided that she had a broken rib at least, and probably in two places. She then went into shock and passed out. She stood for one X-ray and then passed out again so we ixnayed any further X-rays. She doesn't really remember urgent care, she continually exclaimed, "This is SO stupid!", "I didn't even place", and "I didn't even get a medal". Her greatest pain in all of this was not placing, gosh I love this woman.
She's resting and wrapped in an ace bandage and regularly taking ibuprofen is feeling slightly better. Her greatest disappointment is having to be off her bike for four weeks and not medalling of course. After all that she is still very glad we did the race. We did have a very good day.
No comments:
Post a Comment