Getting Underway, at a Turtle's Pace

Caroline in T-ride last year before the collar bone debacle got started. Heal fast Carolenka!!

The race season that is. I headed down to Nathrop, CO with Caroline on Saturday morning for the Spring Series race that Keith Darner was putting on. It was cold and windy when we got there. I made it up to the slalom track and got two practice runs in. I was standing in line for a 3rd when I looked over and saw Caroline going for the little doubles on the top of the slalom track. I could tell something wasn't quite right when she was in the air, so I turned away and didn't see the aftermath. Turns out she ended up crashing and rebreaking her collar bone. I got our stuff all packed up and we drove back to Boulder in time to get to the ER at 2:00. It turns out her collar bone never healed properly after she broke it last year racing DH in Telluride at the end of July. She is going to have to have surgery on it after finals are over next week. It's a huge bummer for her. As soon as she gets healthy, something always seems to happen and she has another major injury. :( Send her quick healing thoughts!

I went to the premier for Clay Porter's new film, F1RST on Saturday night. I thought it was really good. As usual, I am always disappointed that he rarely shows any 4x footage. Oh well, maybe there will be some in the extras again. :)

Sunday morning came bright and early with getting a ride from Brian and Tom Buell back down to Nathrop (at 5:30 in the a.m.!!). I had already registered for both days of racing, and Sunday was 4x day, so I actually really wanted to go back, I just didn't want to drive myself there, again! I had some really good practice runs. Unfortunately my qualifier was a little off, and I didn't have a great time, but it didn't matter too much. Jess and I were the only girls there, so we ended up racing with the expert boys. I was pretty pleased. I beat them all to the first corner from lane 4, and then I didn't really know what to do with myself clear out there. Duhh! I'll figure it out one of these days!