Using My Sick Time at Work Legitimately! :(

Girls Who Play in the Dirt Clean Up Pretty Good, Too!

So, I have been sick, REALLY SICK since last Friday. Lisa, Tammy, and I had a great weekend of staying in the mountains and riding bikes all weekend planned. Well, they got to do all that and had a ton of fun. I got to get super acquainted with the bed in my new bedroom. I really don't have the patience for being sick. I've got stuff to do, you know? I think this might be my body's way of making me let my collar bone and shoulder heal from the crash a couple of week's ago. I think I did a number on it but just wouldn't admit it to myself because I wanted to race so badly at the Snowmass finals.

Anyway, I did join Lisa and Tammy for an exquisite dinner on Saturday night up in Beaver Creek. Great food and wine combined with awesome cool DH girl company made for a great evening! They had a lot of fun riding, too! I wish I could have joined them. :(

Vegas: Less Than 24 Hour Style

Some Good Pool Lounging Time

Emo Kevin Is Like a Cat...He really Doesn't Like the Water

You'd Think This Was at the End of the Night Considering None of Us Know What We're Doing!?!

Cathy and I had decided to make the 3 hour trip down to Vegas from Brianhead for a night after the race. Fisher, Kevin, and Caroline joined us for the adventure at the Luxor Hotel. It was great fun filled with sitting by the pool, getting dressed up, drinking too much wine, riding roller coasters, running around the strip, and overeating at the breakfast buffet. Vegas was complete sensory overload for me, so it was good to go just for the night and leave the next day!

Fisher's Hair Was Amazing!

Kevin Was Generally Mad As They Kept Putting Him "Timeout" Since He's Not 21 Yet

We Saw Some Amazing Mullets!

Fisher and Cathy Were Determined To Make Big Bucks on Video Poker...Didn't Happen

2:30 a.m. and Still Going Strong!

Brianhead: The Injury Report

Brianhead has it out for me, I've decided. Last year I dislocated my finger and didn't get to race.

Last Year's Trip to The Med Center's Pictures

This year I had a bad feeling driving up the canyon, but I thought I was just being paranoid. I got through DH practice on Thursday and breathed a sigh of relief. On to DS practice. The course was super fast on top, and I felt like I was riding really well. Joanna and I headed back up to the course for a few extra runs when most people had called it quit for the day. I came up a little short tripling some rollers before this dumb wedge jump, and I bought the superman ticket to the med center. I'm not quite sure what happened, but the next thing I knew I was flying a good ways through the air to a rough landing. I ended up sublexing my collarbone in the front by my neck, and I got some pretty good scrapes on my back, too. When I finally got up and started walking down the hill, I realized that my rear wheel was messed up, either from the crash or as the cause of the crash. Who knows? I ended up trying to race DS after skipping DH practice on Friday. I had been taking Vicodin for the pain, and that was a bad idea to try to race on. I rode horribly and qualified last. This meant that I had to race Melissa Buell first round. I rode a lot better on Saturday even though it hurt like hell, but it wasn't good enough to advance. Oh well. DH didn't happen at all. I can't pick up the front end of my DH bike, so I didn't think it would be wise to try to ride one of the most difficult courses of the year with little to no upper body strength. Also, I really want to do well in MX this weekend at the Snowmass National. Hopefully I'll heal up this week and be able to ride well this weekend at the National Finals.

It Was Cathy's Birthday so We Had a Little Wine To Celebrate

Fishie's Wine Must Have Gone Straight to His Head at 10,000 ft...Nice Hat!

The Best Monday and Tuesday of My Life

Ahhhh, Mud EVERYWHERE!!

Andre's Personal Slip and Slide

Pretending to Be Hippos in the Mud

We Even Got to Do a Little Rock Climbing

Our Fearless Leader

So, I have met some really great people from riding my bike, and two of those people are Cole and Darryl Bangert. I had the very lucky opportunity to go on a float trip with them last Monday and Tuesday. Cole and Darryl are river kids through and through, so it was awesome to get to spend some time with them. Lisa and I drove through the night from Winter Park and slept in the Starbucks parking lot in Rifle to be able to make it to the put in to meet up with Cole, Darryl, and Andre in time. 9:00 found us shoving off for two amazing days of no agendas, swimming, back flips, cliff jumping and mud baths. I havenÂ’t been on the river in awhile, so it was really nice to get to spend a couple of days soaking up the sun and spending time with 4 really amazing people. Thank you Cole and Darryl for making this trip happen. YouÂ’re the best!

Andre's First Time in a Kayak

Look Closely, There is A Bald Eagle on the Shore Eating a Fish

Perfect Cliff Jumping Location

I was Super Whimpy about Cliff Jumping!

Cole Will Do a Backflip Just About Anywhere!

Cole Will Turn Anything Into an Adventure!

A Split Second

Me and Lisa Counting Our Earnings for the Weekend...Lisa KILLED the Rest of the Pro Women's Field!

We had our regional race in Telluride two weekends ago. IÂ’ve never been to Telluride before so it was awesome just to be there. The course is a really cool course with just about everything to offer: jumps, off-camber wooded sections, a good drop, and super high speed stuff at the end. I struggled with the course on Friday, but I really started to have fun on Saturday. It was actually really nice just to have one event to concentrate on this weekend.

Nate Winning $5 From Forest

I spent the weekend with the WP boys, Cody, Nate, and Forest. They always make me laugh, especially when Forest gets rain water dumped all over him in the middle of the night, TWICE! He always seems to have the worst luck! They made the many hour car rides very entertaining, too!

Professional Rain Dodging: Cody and Nate Passing the Time on the Drive Home

And Nate Claims He Doesn't Like Tomatoes...I Don't Believe Him!

So, when it comes to race time, the DH boys are pretty used to finishing within the same second as 1,2, maybe 3 or 4 other guys. It rarely works out that way in our races. This weekend, however, I learned the value of pedaling as hard as you can everywhere you can. I was the lucky one who ended up placing higher in the same second race this weekend. It was extra beneficial because it ended up being the race for 3rd and 4th, the difference between getting some money and not! PEDAL HARD every time that you can!!