Blazers Opening Night - 2009!

As a super surprise Thor got us tickets to the opening game of the Blazer's season! They played the Houston Rockets last night and we won: 96-87. For reasons I don't entirely understand - StubHub messed up our ticket order not once, but twice, but this ended up being a great thing for Thor & I! Because the snafoo was their fault Stubhub hooked us up with replacement tickets down near the court- we were in about the 6th row - it was amazing, and we never would have paid for those tickets on our own!!! (think $500-ish for a pair of tickets).

Here I am standing at the beginning of our row - you can see how close we were to the action!

An usher offered to take a picture of Thor & I together - my guess is that he was about 83 years old - and pretty shaky with the camera (hence the fuzziness). Thor is wearing on of the free Blazer hats that they were giving away to everyone who came to opening night!

Here's a shot of Brandon Roy getting ready to take a free-throw (I think that's what it's called! Obviously I have a LOT to learn about basketball still!)

These seats were SOOO much fun. I might be ruined for life. =) I told Thor that at some point during our lives we just need to bite the bullet and spring for a pair of tickets, courtside, right at mid-court. Maybe for our 25th wedding anniversary or something like that!

More CX#4 pics!

Here are four more shots from the Sunday race that my teammate, Jenn, snapped of me out on the course!

My friend, Sara (Fletch), and I lined up at the start of the race.

Riding up a muddy off-camber hill.

Running through the first set of barriers.
Rounding the final corner into the homestretch!

Cross Crusade Race #4: In which I look REALLY mean (on accident!)

Yesterday afternoon I went out to the WA County Fair Grounds and raced in Cross Crusade #4. (And yes, if you've been reading the blog, that DOES mean I did two races yesterday. I'm pooped!) I barely made it out to the race course, got changed, registered, rode up and down the parking lot a couple times and then rolled up to the start line.

This was the first race of the season that was muddy and boy was it fun! There were places on the course where my tires really wanted to stick - it was great. Lots of corners meant there were plenty of opportunities to lose the rear of your bike - and I definitely did that once! Went down hard on my side on a slick, hard, muddy corner (my friend, Sarah's, husband Michael has a GREAT series of photos capturing my spill - if I can get them from her I'll post them).

Overall I think I ended up 17th out of about 50. I am pretty happy with that finish, although I was passed by two girls right at the end which I'm a little frustrated I let happen, but what can you do?

Here's a picture a teammate snapped of me out on the course. This shot is up on Facebook and I am absolutely HORRIFIED to see how mean my face is! Terrible! I hope I don't sound that mean when I tell people I'm passing them on their left! I honestly have no idea what I was doing here...I'm trying to remember if anyone shoved me yesterday or pushed me off course, but I honestly don't think I have any good reason to look so angry. I will work on smiling more next time. =)

Photo by Casey Arendt (fellow BTV racer)

This is a shot from the backside of the course coming out of one of the deeper mud sections. I still look like the riding hurts, but at least I'm not scowling in this picture!

Photo by OregonVelo

Run Like Hell 10K - 2009

Yesterday I did the Run Like Hell 10K road race in downtown Portland with some good friends of mine. Two years ago my friend, Katy, and I did the Run Like Hell Half Marathon, but this year we decided that neither of us felt like putting in the training time to run 13 miles - so we settled for six! The Run Like Hell is a really fun race because lots of people dress up in costume for the run so it makes for good people watching while you're slogging away out there.

Thor was a real trooper and got up at 6:30 to drive both me and our friend Stacy downtown. He then hung out with us and collected our jackets right before the race so we didn't get too chilly.

Here's a shot Thor snapped of us as we're rounding the corner into the final 1/4-mile of the race. I realize it's hard to see us, but it's the only 'action' shot we have!

Post race: Me, Joanna, Jessica, Katy & Stacy. We dressed up as belly dancers with jangly hip & head scarves thanks to Joanna and her huge quantity of belly dancing attire. The race went well - we didn't set any land speed records (although Jessica tried hard to pace set for us the entire race), but we DID run the whole time so that was a plus!

All in all it was a really fun morning - we continued our post-Run Like Hell tradition of brunch at the VQ afterwards and all had amazing breakfasts (complete with well earned breakfast cocktails - lovely!)

2009 Tingey Family Reunion

This past weekend Thor & I went to the annual Tingey Family Reunion in Lake Tahoe - it was a gorgeous weekend! Clear blue skies and temperatures into the 70's - we definitely lucked out! We hung out on Friday and went on a hike, then on Saturday we rented mountain bikes and road the Flume Trail with our cousin, Erica. It's possible we'll have some rough helmet cam footage to post here once Erica gets it edited down!

The extended Tingey Family photo sneaked from Ralph's pics!

For a great album of pictures check out Thor's cousin Stacey's pics from the weekend. She takes amazing pictures!

http://s905.photobucket.com/albums/ac256/TINGEYTAHOE/?albumview=grid&track=share_email_album_view_click&fullsize=IMG_5270_2.jpg

Cross Crusade #2 - Rainier

This past weekend I raced at Cross Crusade Race #2 - Rainier. I remember hearing about this huge, awful hill from racers last year. In my head I said: "Note to self - don't race at Rainier in 2009 because it will suck on my SS" --- but then somehow I remembered this warning to myself as to not race at Barton....so I accidentally showed up at Rainier anyways!

When I realized my mistake I attempted to not register for the race. This lasted for about 15 minutes until my friend Becky realized I didn't have a number and marched me back over to the registration tent. doh. I spent the next 45 minutes in gut-wrenching anxiety worrying about whether or not I would make it up the hill in one gear.

The race actually turned out surprisingly well for me! I benefited a lot from the fact that there were some really rough, rutty sections of trail that a lot of girls slowed WAY down for so I was able to put some distance on them through those sections. I didn't make it up the big hill the first time around due to congestion - but once the pack got thinned out a bit and I was able to hold my momentum I was able to stay on my bike for the entire hill for all the remaining laps. Overall I finished 16th out of 50-something - which is a great result for me (I think last year I was usually around 27th). Overall I was thankful Becky caught me trying to skirt out of the race.

Here I am, gasping at the top of the hill. I am glad I'm wearing sunglasses so you can't see how bad my 'pain face' actually is.

My friend, Emilia, is in the yellow shirt running the barriers. This was her second Cx race ever! She's a real trooper - so far she's hurt herself badly enough to not be able to ride TWICE - but she keeps getting out there and trying again. She's going to be great!

I'm a tech weenie and can't figure out/don't want to spend the time figuring out how to enlarge these pictures. If you can see them - great!

First Cx Race of the year! Blind Date at the Dairy #2

Last Wednesday I did my first cyclocross race of the season out at Blind Date at the Dairy, a new Wednesday night Cx series here in Portland. One might think this would mean I would have practiced my cx mount & dismount prior to showing up - not so. Although I wouldn't actually recommend this plan of attack to anyone else planning on racing cross, the race actually went better than I thought it would and I managed to get on and off my bike without looking too much like an injured frog.

My friend Emilia came to the race with me and acted as my very own personal photographer from the race. Here are a few shots she captured:

Lined up and waiting at the start

Speeding around a corner mid-race

Carrying my bike coming into a set of three barriers you needed to run over.

Coming through at the end of a lap.

Passing some competition on the way into the run-up (section of the course that is steep enough you can't ride it - you have to run your bike up instead).

Preparing to remount my bike at the top of the run-up.

Nicely silhouetted as the sun goes down. The later races in the evening are held in the dark with large floodlights illuminating the course.

Running the barriers on my last lap coming into the finish.

Rounding the final corner towards the finish line.