Hood River Super D

This past weekend Thor and I skipped out on making camping/trip plans in favor of staying local to race the Hood River Super D on Sunday.  It was a ton of fun - Thor raced in the Men's Cat 2 field and placed 2nd, and I raced in the women's Cat 1/2 field and placed third.     It was a pretty challenging course for me - we pre-rode on Saturday, and there were certain features/parts of the course that I had to ride up to 5 or 6 times before figuring out the line I needed to be on in order to ride things.  My final pre-ride on Saturday went really well - so I was feeling confident headed into Sunday's race.    

I spent much of Sunday morning visualizing the course and how I wanted to ride my lines - things started out well for about the first five minutes, but then I bobbled going through a rock garden and ended up going over the bars. Hrmph. No injuries - just feet tangled in the dang handlebars and about 20 seconds down the tube.  Anyhow - there was one feature in particular that I couldn't ride (although looking at the picture of Thor going off it below it doesn't really look that big...amazing how your perspective changes when you are approaching on your bike at 20 mph!) - riding off that jump will have to be my goal for next year!

Thor and I happened to be at the awards ceremony last year and they gave away AWESOME prizes - so we were very excited to be on the podium.   Thor walked away with a new helmet, a hooded Dakine sweatshirt, a new Werewolf LT tire, and  a Fox hat - pretty sweet!   The women's prizes, on the other hand, were pretty disappointing. Second and third place in my category each got a patterned Dakine backpack (mine was floral. ick) that you would never actually use while riding your bike (read: no place for a hydration bladder - OR any place to strap your pads). It was frustrating - especially after the beginner men's category and the juniors walked away with tires, goggles and jerseys.     Anyhow - the silver lining of the prize was that I was able to give the backpack away to a young girl who was just about to head off to pre-school for the first time and needed a new backpack.  She was SUPER excited, and her mom was really appreciative - so that put a positive spin on the whole experience, and I was glad to see the back pack go home with someone who would actually use it!

Thanks to Adele for the pictures!  She and William came out to cheer - and it was so much fun to see them out on the course.   Mom worked as an official and ran the times for every racer that came down the course on Sunday - no small feat given that they were sending people off every minute from 11 a.m. until just after 3 p.m. - it was really neat to have all of us out there together, and we were able to snag a beer together afterwards at Double Mountain too.

Thor - about midway down the course clearing a  mandatory drop (I had to walk this feature!)

Me - on the women's Cat 1/2 podium in 3rd (far left)

Thor and I together with our bling!