Pink, Pink, Everywhere There's Pink! (Kinda matches the theme of the blog....)

Yes, even the pivots are hot pink.......

My new Mach 4 in all of it's pink glory!

They even gave us girls clothes to match the bikes

Ladies and gentlemen, it was Christmas time in May at my house this afternoon!!!!! Yes, the moment I have been waiting for since I first laid my eyes on it wayyyyyyyyy back in September at Interbike.......my PINK Pivot Mach 4 has finally arrived! Better yet, it also came with our new pink and baby blue team clothing. For the first time in my 15 (holy cow has it really been that long???????) years of racing, I have my hot little hands on a girly bike AND clothing. You have no idea how excited I am.

So, the bike is being built up this weekend, hopefully the fork will arrive either this weekend or Monday, and it will be ready to race next weekend. We are hoping it's trial run will be our local cycling club's Tuesday night mtn. bike race. More to come as it progresses!

12 Hours of Mesa Verde

A little bit behind on this one. A week ago, I drug my poor mom to Cortez, Colorado so I could partake in the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde on a 2-person team with my good friend, and fellow Kenda sponsored rider, Tom Wehe. After 15-ish hours in the car, we finally arrived at Tom's house in Durango. An exhuasting drive to say the least (and did I mention this weekend was the weekend before finals for me???? Yeah......dumb move on my part.......). We woke up bright and early for this one for the 7am start. I of course got "roped" into doing the run (ha, ha, little did Wehe know I would get him back later.......), but it was kinda nice, cuz it was the coolest temperatures we would see all day on the bike. The race was pretty much sold out, so it allowed for ALOT of people on the course at one time. I of course managed to get myself stuck behind some guy who refused to let anyone get by......there were about 10 of us in a line behind him, and the course was 16.5 miles of singletrack, this was gonna be a long lap. Finally he faultered, and we all got by. I rolled in from my first lap, passed off the batton, and it was time to "rest". This is the part of the race I was unsure of.....I am used to just continuing on to the next lap, and the next one, and the next one. Wasn't sure how my legs were going to react to this one. My second lap came along, and needless to say, it was a little rough getting the legs going again. Both Tom and I proved to be pretty consistent with our lap times. We shuffled positions in the race a bit (we were 12th for a while, then 7th, then 9th). After my 3rd lap, my back was killing me, and so was my shoulder. I think it was all the stress I have been going through with school, but nonetheless is killed me. Upon returning from my 3rd lap (our 5th as a team), I had to fill Tom in on the fact that he not only was going to be doing his 3rd lap, but consecutively a 4th for him (payback time for the run thing....). Don't think he was too happy with me at this point! I did however prepare myself to go back out, just in case. While waiting in the transition area, he managed to somehow come right in and go back out, I had no idea.......but I was SO relieved!

Anyways, Tom returned from his 4th lap exhausted, and I felt really bad cuz I hadn't seen him come through the transition area before that lap. Ultimately, we came in 10th. Not quite what we had hoped for, but there were alot of 2 person co-ed teams, and this was our first shot at the 2 person team thing. On the positive side of things, we were super consistent in our lap times, and even better yet, my fastest lap time was 20 minutes faster than my fastest lap time here last year! Even my slowest lap this year was faster than my fastest lap last year. Next up, back to the solo thing on June 6th for the 24 Hours of Adrenalin race at Laguna Seca.

Livin' in the Land of the Rednecks.....

I am thinking of making this a regular feature on my blog.......find the MOST redneck or white trash thing I can find weekly, and post it.......trust me, there is PLENTY of stuff like this going on where I live! This picture is of something that repeatedly cracks me up. I drive by this everyday during my commute to work (and by the way, this is literally RIGHT next to the cattle guard where I had my lovely crash almost 4 years ago---for those of you who remember it!). Seriously, what did these people do? Ask their brother, sister, friend, family member "Hey, I got a great idea, let's buy ourselves one of them there double wides, and split 'er in half. You can have yourself one half, and I got's myself the other half". Rocket science at it's finest. I think what baffles me even more is this: who got the bedroom?.......who got the kitchen?.......and I am thinking, with the LACK of size this thing would be as a WHOLE, who got the bathroom?????? Trust me, there is NO WAY this thing as a whole would have 2. Maybe the guy who didn't get the bathroom just cut away a hole in the floor, and dug a hole in the ground underneath that hole, and made his own makeshift toilet? If you look at it, it's not like either side is on any sort of foundation.

Who knows what I will come up with next. I am really bummed that I didn't get a pic of the truck with the confederate flag sticker the other day. I was half afraid he woulda shot me for taking the pic! I leave for the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde, which in in Cortez, Colorado tomorrow morning. It is going to be a long drive, and I am sure I will come up with something good! I will make sure to post next week how me and my partner in crime (Tom VEEEEHEEEEE Wehe) fare in this little duo person escapade! Should be fun!

You Might Be a Redneck If.......

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Sick, Sick, Sick....

So the Kleenex box pictured above is my best friend right about now. I woke up yesterday feeling a little under the weather, and debated calling in sick. Like always, I figured I would go in and tough it out.......what was I thinking? After taking care of some obligations at work, I decided to leave early so I could get some sleep before I had to go to school (which was the last thing I wanted to do at that point was sit thru class.......and I was just hoping today was not "cat dissection day" in anatomy class.....I lucked out, that isn't till next week!). My hope was to try and rest up and beat this cold before this weekend (essentially in a day and a half.....fat chance!), in which I was SUPPOSED to race the Coolest 24 Hour race up over the hill from Lake Tahoe. I have wanted to do this race for years, but it has always conflicted with another race that I had sponsorship obligations to participate in, and this was going to be my year. Now, it will have to wait till next year...............
Fortunately the race promoter was cool enough to let me transfer my entry fee to the Coolest 24 Hr Race at Boggs Mtn later on in the season. As for now, I am going to go cuddle up with my Kleenex box!