Seward Spring Classic

Whew! What a weekend. It started on Thursday, I took two days off work to finish the dry wall and tile the shower. Feeling like there is a foreseeable finish to this project makes me happy. Friday night I went to the Bodies exhibit. Very cool and a bit creepy. I kept reminding myself that these were real living people many of them seemingly young and relatively healthy (minus the fact that they died) it made me wonder if they would have wanted to become part of this attraction. The process to create these human "sculptures" included dissection then vacuum sealing the bodies in a bath of acetone (to remove all liquid) and silicon (to replace the tissue)the circulatory system was super cool, they start by removing all fluid from they circulatory system and replacing it with colored polymeres then digesting all the tissue revealing the cast of the veins and arteries. Amazing to see the arteries and capillaries suspended in a case, the human form revealed by the network of vessels that deliver oxygen to every part of our bodies. I also thought the smoker lungs were just amazing, to see what all that smoke really does to the tissue should make anyone who smokes want to quit on the spot.

Saturday finished up the wall tile minus the grout (always one more step it seems) then took all the drywall leftovers to the dump. Relaxed the rest of the day.

Sunday was again a great day to race my bike. Broken clouds, bits of sunshine, what could be better? I drove down to Seward, on the way I had the pleasure of seeing a bald eagle sitting on a low branch of a tree while going down the switch backs huge beautiful bird so close that I could see the scales on his talons. Once at Seward I quickly got ready to warmup. My warmup consisted of a spin up the blvrd then back down to the hill heading towards Rainier Ave. Three hard efforts up the hill and I was ready to go.

There were 26ish women at the line, mostly WoW and TGH. Off the line we were crawling but we quickly upped the pace. This was a fun race, it was smooth for the most part I was up front most of the race so if there was any sketchiness I missed it but I didn't hear any complaints. I attacked and chased and got in a couple of little breaks, basically I worked really hard and played but should have saved more for the finish still figuring out how to be patient. Two laps to go and a TGH attacks on the hill, I hesitate (oops) then go. My teammate Morgan sees the move also and goes. All three of us are spread out with a gap on the field, me in third I should have jumped quicker to get on the TGH wheel instead I had to chase. At the bell lap we were still spread out and I could not close it, I looked back once at the bottom of the hill and saw the entire pack on my wheel. I wasn't going to catch the two up ahead of me but I also wasn't willing to slow because the pack would have swallowed me. Last time up the hill I gave it everything I had to stay out front before the final corner. Two women got around me right before we turned I pushed a bit more to catch the TiCycles wheel then decided to go for it and try to get around her I moved out and dug as deep as I ever have. We crossed the line so close it took multiple replays of the video to determine who crossed 1st, it was me!!! 4th place I am happy.

I feel like every race I learn something, it once was simply how to hold a wheel or just finish with the pack, now in each race I am learning what it takes to win and more importantly how to get the team a win weather it is me or someone else. Morgan won Laura was 3rd and I was 4th. Good days work rewarded with sitting in the sun with friends and my girls watching bike racing.