neVenEvEneveNeveNeven: Gated Racing Galore, Cough Cough

Jess, Lisa, Joanna, and me on the Dual Slalom podium

This past weekend we were down in Nathrop at the McMurry Ranch for some 4x and DS action at the first round of the Mountain Sates Cup. Normally this is one of my favorite weekends of racing of the year, given that it's a weekend full of nothing but gated racing, but... Friday found me starting to feel really under the weather, and it only got worse as the weekend went on. :( I felt as I imagine chronic smokers must feel. After a single practice run (or sometimes just 1/2 a run) I could barely breathe through the wheezing crap in my lungs. Ah well, ya gotta make the best of it right?

Girls Gone Wild Weekend...haha Just Kidding!!

After being an idiot and accidentally taking the daytime cold medicine before bed on Friday night and wondering why I couldn't sleep, Saturday was off to a great start. haha Saturday was 4x day, and the day's event went really well. The Ranch is setup with two start gates running off of the same cadence box. Super cool! 8 people in the start gate at the same time snapping onto the two different 4x tracks! Good fun!! 4x racing was very uneventful for me that day, as I didn't have the energy or snap to make it much of a race with Joanna and Bobbi Kae (straight out of gated racing retirement!). Got third.

Sunday was gonna be a long day! Dual slalom always takes FOREVER! (just one more reason why I like 4X more than DS, haha). We got started with practice at 8:00-9:30 and then qualifying at about 10:00. The beginners/sports raced first. (insert bang head against wall repeatedly while sitting bored out of our minds waiting.) :) Then we had another 15 minute practice session right as the wind was picking up, yea! Finally around 3:00 or so, the boys started their round of 32, and we kept waiting, patiently. :) We finally got to race around 4:30 once the guys' fields were all down to the rounds of 8. My first round went smoothly, and I won both races easily. After that I had to race Lisa, who is a slalom master, and I didn't have much energy left to make it much of a fight, but I gave it all I had. She got me on both courses and moved on to race Joanna in the finals. I raced Jess for 3rd and 4th, and had a good couple of races to take another 3rd.