Ohhhh, the agony of the Sea Otter Classic!

   First off, let me say that I actually really had a good time down at Sea Otter this year.  Thanks to the generosity of some friends we had a place to spend a night on the way down, scored a camping spot right near the downhill course, and a free festival pass for Kit for all 3 days.  And thanks to the race support I had my rear shock and brakes serviced, and scored a fancy new rear derailleur, all for free. Sure, this is just how it works at a race, but I'd never actually tried to have my bike worked on at a race before. That alone was worth having made a $50 donation to the Otter for the dual slalom race I wasn't able to attend!
   As for the race, well, my record of terrible early-season race results still stands (or did I break it?)...the field of 22 was enormous for a women's race, and contained 6 or 7 established World Cup racers, never mind the fact that everybody had most likely been riding bikes much more than myself all winter long.  The worst part of that was being sick for the past 2 months and feeling like crud every time I had a day off to do any sort of directed workout--and forget doing anything physical after work, not going to happen. Not helpful at all! So considering what terrible shape I was in, being only a second off of #21 was actually not that bad, and probably more due to my couple of mistakes on course than anything else.  The remainder of time between me and the top 10 was definitely due to a lack of practice and training over the past few months, hopefully something I can easily make up before the Pro GRT at Northstar this year.
   And now for something completely different, back to work on the pump track in my yard... It's going to be good this year, I can feel it! So if anybody wants to come and help me dig/revise it PLEASE do, I need some assistance to bring it to its full potential of radness!