Life

,

East Coast Post 2.5

,

Harpoon Brewery, so many options, even Cider for this Gluten Free girl.

After Providence it was off to do a little exploring in Boston.  I learned a few things for the three days I spent there.  Monday I spent half the day sleeping, then cruising around the suburbs for a recovery spin, hung out with  my Cousin’s (by marriage) 3 year old daughter, and slept hard that night.  Tuesday I had this grand plan for a bike ride, after my bike was fixed (remember I had to pit to my "b" bike on the 2nd day of Providence).  I was recommended to head to the Ride Studio Café in Lexington, MA to get my bike taken care of by Mike Berlinger.  Brendan, aka cousin, drove me from Melrose to Lexington and my plan was to go for a ride and do some intervals out there and then ride back to the house. 

First things first, if you are ever in the Boston area, and you love bikes and are addicted to coffee, you HAVE to go to the Ride Studio Café.  This place is the coolest bike shop/café combo I have ever seen (and the first)!  Bellingham needs one, really bad.  Mike took amazing care of my bike and got her back into working order and he even planned a route for me!  He mapped out the route, and we sent it to my really smart Garmin 500 (hint of sarcasm).  I turned on my courses function and went about on my ride.  It was working great, I ended up on a road and the map function told me I wouldn’t turn for another 15 miles, awesome!  About 3 minutes after seeing that I encountered a stop sign, and could only turn left or right.  This is when everything went seriously wrong, I mean seriously wrong, and all of the sudden I was off course, no matter what direction I rode.  

Keytar Bear is his name…so I hear.  A Boston Staple.

Sometimes I like to pretend I know where I'm going, most of the time I have no idea.  I rode and I rode, thinking I was going somewhere and I would find a beautiful marvelous road to do my intervals on.  Then I ended up in some small like town that looked like an easy place to get lost in.  That's when I decided I should call Mike.  He gave me a great road to do some intervals on, it went by the Hanscom airport.  I went back and forth, back and forth, and then it was time to go home.  I was pretty convinced I followed his instructions very well, and I come upon a road that looked quite busy, and wasn't very bicycle friendly, so I went straight across it, and into a line up of cars stopping at some guard shack.  I decided since I wasn't a car, I didn't need stop, and I just cruised on by.  Then I heard a "MAM, MAM, MAAAAAAM, STOP!!!".  First off, I'm not a mam, but I did stop.  Then this man in a full on Military outfit came running at me.  He asked me for some ID and my first response was "well, thank goodness I brought that with me today", because sometimes I forget things like that.  So I dig into my back pocket, pull out my plastic baggie and hand him my WA state drivers license.  He looks at it with a confused look, then says to me "do you have a military badge" and now we trade looks and mine becomes extremely confused and I respond with "a what"?  He quickly responds as he points to his lovely outfit "This is a military base, you need a military badge to enter, you are not welcome here".  I reply "Well, clearly I'm not from here and I'm very confused".  He then asks me where I'm trying to go and he points me in the right direction, yes he tells me I need to go ride on that really busy looking road.  I told him it didn't look very bike friendly and that couldn't possibly be where I needed to go.  He firmly told me it was, he was correct.  I eventually made it back to the shop safe and sound, after having some words with a women on the side walk who told me I was going to get a ticket for riding my bike on the side walk.  

The next part of the journey was getting from Lexington to Melrose, and a journey it was.  I only made a few wrong/missed turns, but eventually (1 hour to be exact) I made it back to the house.  That adventure was really very exhausting.  I decided my next days ride was going to be in circles around the house.  And that's just what I did.

Wednesday was my all time favorite day.  I took the subway into Boston and spent the day cruising the streets of Boston by foot and bike.  We stopped by the Harpoon Brewery, took the subway to the college district (okay I know it has a better name, but I was surrounded by college kids), saw the water, drank terrible Starbucks coffee and smiled the entire day.  

History, or something

Need a good giggle?  Bike Share in Boston, SO MUCH FUN!  As you can see by my face.

Thursday I made the trek to Rochester, NY for the final weekend of racing on the East Coast!

,

The building of a brand.

,

I'm an Exercise Science major, have been and always will be.  My mind, it focuses on the body, it focuses on human movement, not sitting still, not staring at computer screens, and definitely not marketing.  Actually, I know practically nothing about marketing, but here I am.  I have spent the last six months building a brand and learning to attempt to market myself.  I'm a social person, but I can't ask for things very well.  I know people, but I don't know everyone.  I know how to ride a bike, but I know nothing about bikes.  I'm learning all of this, and it's exhausting.  While I had some great results last year in the CX scene, I don't have that many contacts in the cycling industry.  I don't have age on my side to grab the fans attention, I have me.  Courtenay McFadden, the PNW'er who has been doing this on her own with the help of her CX community for the past two years.  I have the love of my friends and local fans to get me through, and I'm going to make them proud.  

I'm working on building my brand, my name, I'm learning, and boy has it been an experience.  First off, I didn't realize things take time, and not just a little bit of time, but A LOT of time.  I'm talking months.  This stuff doesn't just happen over night, it's email's back and forth, phone calls back and forth, for days, weeks, and months on end.  I'm learning how to be a good rep for businesses and how to sell their product.  I'm learning that sometimes things don't go your way and don't take it personal even though I really want to.  I'm learning that a follow up email can do wonders, or it can do nothing.  I'm learning that if you never ask, you never get, and sometimes, when you think the answer will be no, it's actually yes.  I'm learning that people trust me, believe in me, and see me as an asset.

I'm excited to see where this adventure will take me.  I'm excited to see what kind of brand I can build, and I'm excited to rep every. single. sponsor.

Don't worry, I will tell you soon enough.  

I'm alive, I swear!

Hey readers, it's almost July.  The last time I posted was directly after nationals, 2 weeks later I wrote up another blog post I never posted, because I never really finished it.  Actually to be honest, I have 7 unfinished posts.  I was going to go back and re-read them, and then condense them all into one post to give you an update on my life.  But after reading this particular un-posted post, I decided I needed to copy and paste it here.  Remember, I wrote this 2 weeks post nationals in January, and it is unfinished.

 

I'm finally crawling (on my hands and knees) out of my emotional pity party.  When I returned home from CX Nats I had to stay away from social media.  I didn't check Facebook, I stayed off of Twitter and Instagram.  It hurt too much to see the posts about Nationals.  Eventually, I was able to get onto Facebook and just ignore the National posts, as long as I scrolled fast enough if I saw something bike related, I would be okay.  This becomes a problem once you realize nearly all your Facebook friends somehow relate to bikes.  I healed past that emotional black hole, and for the first time today, I looked up the results and watched a few post race interviews (of my favorite people) on Cyclingdirt.  I know it seems I should be over it by now, but nearly 10months of preparation (plus thoughts), 4 months of racing, and thousands of miles travelled, it's hard to disregard 1 race in just a matter of days.

I want to reflect a little on my season.  I haven't had the chance to step back and look at the whole picture of the season.  I had some highs and lows (as always), but mostly highs.  When I first started racing cyclocross I did it because everyone around me was, then I caught the bug, and all I could think about was cyclocross.  I rode my bike because...I liked riding my bike.  Every year I progressed and got a little faster, but I never believed (or even had dreams) of being where I am now.  I never had ambitions of lining up at Elite cyclocross nationals.  Naturally, I am a person who always wants to do better than last time, I guess you could say I'm competitive.  I have never excelled so quickly in a sport before, like I have in cyclocross, and this has continued to motivate me throughout the years.  Once I realized where my racing was going, was when the goals started.  I'm thankful for my goals and my ambition, it's why I am where I am.

I'm thankful and I'm happy with every single one of my results this year.  I can look back on my season and I remember how I felt at every race.  I remember every emotion and every sweat drop (okay just kidding about the sweat).  I learned so much at every race, so much about technique and tactics.  I learned what I need to work on to better my skills, and what I need to work on to be stronger.  Even though traveling for 4-5 months every other weekend is exhausting, I don't work as much so I have to forget about the material things, and I miss out on seeing my friends and my husband, I wouldn't take it back for anything.  I'm living in the now and I love what I do.  I love riding, I love racing.  Riding takes me places in nature I would never other wise go.  I can appreciate the beauty of where I live, I can appreciate the cool breeze on my face, every hill I have to climb, and every single track trail I ride.  Racing gives me a thrill, it makes me feel successful, it gives me a goal.  Racing lights up my world, it has allowed me to meet people from all over who love the exact same thing I do.  Racing has taken me places I never thought imaginable.

Racing took me to Belgium.  Lets reflect on Belgium.  Belgium was, and will probably remain one of the most epically packed trips I have been on.  First off, I have to say that Geoff Proctor (who runs Eurocrosscamp) does an amazing job putting together the whole program.  From the mechanics who constantly kept our bikes running, to his wife who spent too many hours in the kitchen cooking for 20, the whole experience was incredible.  The logistics that go into running such an affair cannot be easy, especially over seas!  Trying to manage 16 racers during 1 race day (5 times over), whew so many logistics!  Thanks Geoff for putting together the program and for including me in it!

Racing in Belgium is a real experience that I'm so happy I had the chance to do this season.  I never anticipated such a thing would happen for me, and I feel that much more prepared for next year because of it.  Racing in Belgium allowed me to realize how much more I need to work on, it has given me the drive for next year to better my performance.

 

As I think about what my life is going to be like in 2 months, I can't lie and say I'm a little nervous.  This off season has been really awesome, I have had the chance to see people I don't get to see all the time.  I have watched the smile on my friends faces as they get married, I have trained my booty off, almost put our house on the market to buy a new one, went to Hawaii, got a new job, put Chris and I on a budget, contemplated how happy I would be if I bought a new car, snuggled my kitty 5x/day, and have worked my BUTT off (with my dad) to find sponsors for next year.  Reading what I wrote back in January brought back a flood of emotions of the Cyclocross season.  Lets face it, racing bikes isn't easy, it secludes you from the real world, secludes you from those who don't race/ride bikes, and there is always that thought in the back of my head "how material do I want to be"?  I think about the things I could have if I didn't race bikes, it tempts me, because I'm not afraid to say, I like material things.  Then I go back and read posts like the one above, and it reminds me, why I do this.  I race because I love it, I love the sport, and the people in it, I wouldn't trade anything for the life I live, if I didn't travel and race, I would still train and race just as hard, so why not take it where it should go?

Thank you January self, for reminding me why I race, for reminding me how much I LOVE the sport.  As July nears and August comes, the jitters will come until that first race of the season.  I can't wait to share with all of you how hard I have worked to put together a program for next year.  I can't wait to announce everything, but you will have to wait until that time comes!

Thank you for being patient for this far delayed post.  I will post an update on life relatively soon!