Freight Train With No Brakes

Hahaha...that's what I feel like my life is like right now!

I guess it was worth the trip! :)

The only two stars and bars jersey winners for the weekend! :) (all prettied up, too, hahaha)

Last Thursday, I got on the AB bus from Boulder to DIA (Denver Int'l Airport) at 3:30 in the morning (after a long tearful night with no sleep) and made my way to Banner Elk, NC. It was a long journey involving 3 legs of flights, but at least it didn't involve dragging any bikes along (thanks to the UW team for DRIVING our bikes to NC!!!!). We arrived at the venue for the Collegiate National Mountain Bike Championships, and I was pretty much less than thrilled! It was raining, and guaranteed muddy for the whole weekend! I was NOT looking forward to it, to say the least!

Beautiful, but foggy and rainy!! The trees are amazing, though, truly amazing!

Friday morning found us shuttling for DH runs because the lift took 36 minutes to get to the top, and found all of us putting our mud spikes on for the runs! I was pretty happy that my friend TJ had hooked me up with some 2.5 Maxxis Wet Screams! They are my new favorite tires, for sure! We practiced till about 3:00, and then we had qualifying. I had a decent run with minimal pedaling to place me 4th in qualifying setting up for racing bright and early the next day at 8:00 a.m.

Phil ended up 6th and only 8 seconds off the win with a huge crash in his skin suit!

Well, 8:00 in the morning found the mountain too foggy for the officials to let us race, so we sat around freezing for almost 2 hours before we headed off the start line. My race went pretty crappy with a huge fall, but it must have been going pretty good prior to that, as I still had a 5 second faster time than my qualifier even with the huge get off. Anyway, I ended up 5th, but my surrogate little sister Sage and my favorite boy/surrogate little brother Cody both ended up taking W's for the day. It was almost as cool as winning myself!!

Luckily, I did win myself, later, so we all got to be "cool" for the weekend! haha

After DH on Saturday, we had DS practice. I didn't practice very much cuz I wasn't really "feeling it", and my friend Eszter was in the midst of kicking EVERYONE's ass in short track, so I needed to cheer!! Seriously, that might have been my favorite part of the whole weekend (even with what's to come). She lapped everyone but Chloe Forsman, who rides for Luna Chix. That's a truly amazing feat, if you ask me!!

Anyway, after DS practice on Saturday, I wasn't really looking forward to the race on Sunday (there's a good reason for my complete apathy, which I'll explain later). We got to the venue on Sunday expecting no practice, but they gave us an hour of practice. It was amazing, during practice, I started feeling really good!! We qualified at the beginning (on the slower course), and I had an okay run. As it turns out, my okay run was just about 2 seconds faster than anyone else's!! I was pretty excited about that, as they were doing a best 2/3 format (DUMB!!!!!), and the higher qualifier always had lane choice. Sweet! (for me! haha) Anyway, I made it to the finals, pretty easily, and had a pretty easy round against Sara from Fort Lewis. As it turned out, I didn't have to work too hard and took the win! I didn't even have to jump anything. I mean I guess I should have, just for the sake of knowing that I could from what I did in practice, but it was a long season, and I was pretty beat up. If I could win and not do much work, that's seemed like a pretty good idea, right? haha Anyway, in the end, I did win, and it was awesome!! :) A stars and bars jersey to bring home, when all I really wanted was to have the weekend "be over"! Not too bad. Me and Eszter both bringing home the sweet jerseys! Not too bad!

Hmmm, I should really be about 1.5 feet higher in the berm!

Eszter's ST podium!

There's always an afterparty, and it's always what you make of or make out of it! hahaha :) We were all ready to throw down!
It's an honour, really, being licked by a National Champ!!

So, anyway, Friday morning, I had gotten a call from my mom that my grandfather had passed away on Thursday night. Long story short, it made for a really horrible weekend for me with lots of tears, not sleeping, and generally feeling crappy! I feel like my grandpa must have been there with me on Sunday, because how else could it have been that easy? He was always so proud of my riding (which was evident with how many people knew about my travels to race in Europe at his funeral). It was really hard for me for the past couple of months, with him struggling with leukemia. He was one of the best role models that anyone could ever ask for! I am lucky that he was such an amazing part of my life!

Me and my Grandpa earlier this past summer

I got back from NC and bought a plane ticket to Montana. Back to DIA a short 8 h0urs after I left. I got to Montana and got to hang out with my sister and her CUTE little 2 year old kiddo! It was hard and good at the same time, to be home with everyone who was missing my grandpa SOOO much!

Marshall's favorite game...Honk Honk! He does it both to you and to himself. SO cute!!

My Grandpa's funeral was on Wednesday, and it was amazing to see how many people's lives that he had touched! He was such an amazing person, and I am so lucky to have learned so much from him!

I had to rush home to tend to my stem cells! Sometimes, I think they're cool. This week, I just wished they weren't "ready to go". I had to spend all day yesterday and today starting experiments. Both days were long and tedious, but hopefully I'll be able to get some good data out of the experiments.

Hmmmm, that was the shortish long version of the last couple of weeks in my crazy life. That's not all of it, but that's all I've got the energy for. :)

I am so happy about the starts and bars jersey, so very, very sad about my grandfather, and very happy that it's the end of the week. I am hoping that my life will slow down a little bit so I can "catch up".

Thanks for reading this all, I know it was long!! Hope everyone is doing well!! xoxox neven