Crossin' through Seattle

First off, I apologize for my lack of photos! I've been very bad this trip and I have no one to take photos of me and the media isn't really interested in mid-pack riders!

After my 4 am airport shuttle pick-up in Vegas I took an uneventful flight to Seattle. The approach into the SeaTac airport was a giant circle about the city. I got a great shot of Mt. Rainer poking up through the clouds followed by great views of the sports arenas, the space needle, and rest of the surrounding areas. After lugging my bike bag around the airport looking for the rental car shuttle stop and being asked about 50 times "What's in THAT bag?" I finally got a rental car and headed back to the airport to pick-up Jonathan Page who came in on a later flight.

I was pretty excited to arrive at our host family's house because Todd and Jonathan were talking up the amazing cooking I was about to experience. Plus, that meant I could try and get back to a semi-normal race day schedule and out of the Vegas chaos. I was amazed by the Kirske's house when we pulled up just as JP began to tell me that it has been in various commercials and movies. Oddly enough, David Sr. notified us upon arrival that a filming crew would be here bright and early the next morning to film part of a short film. Crazy! Since we were slightly behind schedule, thanks to a delayed flight, we rushed to put our bikes together and get to the race venue where JP was scheduled to teach a clinic. The course was located at Sammamish State Park on dried out grass and included a beach run on Lake Washington, one set of barriers, and a fly-over. Many of the women who raced in Vegas had made the short trip to Seattle for round 2, so the pack was yet again stacked with power riders and I figured the pace would be lighting fast again. Since it was JP's birthday, we came home from pre-ridding to celebrate with an incredible dinner and homemade chocolate birthday cake. Let's just say Lila's cooking was all it was cracked up to be!

StarCrossed on Saturday evening was warm and dry. My call-up was about 20th out of 30 so I knew I had some work to do. But, I did not help myself when the gun went off, I had one of the worst starts...ever! I panicked a bit trying to recover, then it took me what seemed like forever to get settled in. But once I did, I felt pretty good despite my mid-pack position. I ended up in 13th place, a little disappointed, but happy to get another race under my belt. The men's race was exciting to watch with JP taking 3rd place. And then we returned home for another amazing homemade dinner from Lila.

Sunday's Rapha Focus race was located at the same venue but because it rained all Saturday night the course was a bit more technical. The chicanes turns were a little slick and tree roots greasy...AKA more fun! My new tubulars were glued with care by JP's mechanic Franky and the tread was perfect for the wet course. Call-ups were not nice, once again. This time I was 3rd to last out of 28 girls so I played catch-up for the first couple of laps. I was feeling pretty good and was making up some time on the group of girls in front of me but with 3 laps to go I just plain ran out of gas! I obviously need to work on pushing through the "pain cave"! In the end I found myself in 13th place...again! I'm not loving the curse of 13! Not sure who will be at Gateway Cross in St. Louis on Wednesday, but I really wanting something better than 13th!

So one more day in Seattle before we head to St. Louis. Planning on seeing the city, hanging out at Pike's Market, and visiting Todd's swanky workout facility and shop!