Last week I was talking about my weird year and how things haven't been the greatest for me lately. I'm happy to say, that a couple of weeks ago we went to the Chicago area to race bicycles and it was just what the doctor ordered. I needed a wonderful weekend, and I got it.
The race was in the town of Woodstock, Illinois where they filmed the movie "Groundhog Day".
The race organizers had a lot of fun with that fact.
The first day I raced was the Illinois State Cyclocross Championships. They offered masters women's categories for the first time. Of course, I was the only woman in the 55+ category. There were few women who were just a year or two off of that. So, most of the women were so sweet to me about being the oldest old lady out of all of the old ladies who raced. One woman doing registration there even hugged me when I hopped off of the podium. How nice is that?
John also had great races that weekend. He was second place in his race on Sunday for most of it, but he didn't wear warm enough gloves or put a knobby enough tire on his back wheel, so he kept sliding out and his hands were so numb, he couldn't switch gears. He ended up 5th, which is pretty damn good anyway.
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| Sadly, out about 150 selfies we tried to take, this was the best out of all of them. I look insane. |
After our race on Saturday, we got to meet up with my friend Sarah at a show downtown. John and I both love Sarah. She is hilarious and fun and super smart, and she always takes us to the coolest places when we come to Chicago.
This time she had us meet her at this cool old warehouse area that they turned into studio and shop spaces.
It was a neighborhood benefit celebrating the 20th anniversary of Bloodshot Records, which is a small record label that mostly deals in alt-country bands. The best thing about the show was that started at 4 pm. Perfect for us old folks.
We listened to music for while and then got really hungry, so we walked down the street to an amazing taqueria to eat dinner.
When we got back to the show, we decided to check out the shop spaces. They were all really cool.
On Sunday morning, I raced again. On Saturday, the course was pretty muddy, which is always good for me. I didn't do too badly, when racing with the other women, and I wouldn't have even been last in the masters women category if you put us all together.
Sunday was a different deal. I'm still not all that strong, so after racing on Saturday, I was feeling weak and tired. On Sunday they only had a 35+ women's category.
I was second to last in my race for at least half of it. Close to the end of the first lap, I rode my bike to a muddy uphill section and had to get off of it to get any traction. Then, for whatever reason, I had a hard time hopping back on my bike, so the woman in last place was able to almost catch me. On the second lap, John told her that she could probably catch his wife. She told me later, that him saying that spurred her on to try a little harder, and she did catch me by the third lap. I had no energy to fight her, so I stayed as close to her as I could and only finished about 30 seconds after her. It was fine by me. I'd much rather have someone to race for last place with, than to ride all by myself for a podium position. Plus, that woman was so nice and cool. I didn't feel bad at all losing to her.
After our races, we went back to the pub we had lunch at the day before. It was in the old jail of the town, and it looked pretty cool. They had great food, and I even had a beer with lunch.
Unfortunately, we forgot to drink to world peace.
After lunch, we left the town of Ground hogs and bike races and headed for home.
We had a great weekend. It was just what I needed, but Archie was so glad that we were home.
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