Bipolar Day

A day of ups. A day of downs.

The upside. The day started with something I've been waiting for for a long time. A WIN! Yes, that's right. I actually won my race yesterday. I had an okay start. The usual not being able to clip-in to my pedal, slotting into 5th or 6th place, making some good passes and ending up in 3rd about half way thru the first lap. I was behind Lynda and Kristina going up the "run up" which most of us were able to ride. Lynda got a small gap and I was kind of stuck behind Kristina. I managed to get around her and began chasing down Lynda. She took the first lap prime but her gap was not that big (I would say only 5-10 seconds) but it must have looked bigger to the spectators because JJ (the announcer) was going off on how far in front she was. I caught her just after the pavement climb about a quarter of the way into the second lap and we were together going up the run up. Unfortunately, she crashed on the downhill and nearly took me with her. At this point the little angel in me wanted to stop and make sure everything was ok. The little devil in me wanted to put the hammer down. The little devil won (sorry Lynda). What followed is a blur. I put on the gas and never let up. The first time gap I remember was only 15 seconds, then I heard 51 seconds, then 2 minutes. JJ was already announcing me as the race winner with 3 laps to go. I heard him say "Winner, winner, chicken dinner" with 2 to go and was praying he wasn't going to jinx me. Sonja told me I could go easy and cruise to the win but I didn't want to take that chance. I've had so many mechanical issues that I wanted my gap to be as big as possible just in case my bike broke and I had to run to the pits. I ended up winning with a gap of about 4 minutes. Lynda recovered from her crash and was able to hold onto second. Good job. Kristina rolled in for third. Really good job considering she was on a mountain bike.

Results here. Be sure to read the story, too.

After the race, Sonja took me to lunch at Belga Cafe, the Belgian restaurant on Capitol Hill where we dined on waffles, drank a glass of champagne, and toasted the Belgian monks in Chimay by downing some of their fine brew. The day was capped by borrowing the White Dog and taking her on a hike in Rock Creek. Nothing pleases us more than watching her joy in running off leash and fetching sticks out of the water.

The downside. The White Dog split a toenail at Rock Creek and there was blood everywhere. It doesn't sound so bad now, but we were panicked at the time. I mean, we borrow someone else's dog and she gets injured under our watch. Of course we're going to feel bad about it. Thankfully, Laura didn't seem to mind. Dogs will be dogs.

And the really bad news... Sonja's mother took a turn for the worse. I won't give details but I hope she knows my thoughts are with her.