Tucson.. part deux…

Suppose I should write about the last 2 days of camp before I completely forget about them. Happens when you start to get old.

Ok so Friday night. There was one notable.. I won’t say who it was but at one point I was in the living room (waiting for the UT game to start) and someone says to me – “um kari I have to fart and its going to be nuclear”. Oh lord. Really? But it was. Steller.

Saturday. Part of the group, those doing IM this year headed out for their century ride. The rest of us (6 left) headed out toward gates pass to do our own ride in the national park over there. I was excited. Until jen mentioned the GP descent. Fast. Aggressive. Curvy. That my friends sends off the alarm bells in my head and has me already pumping the breaks. Ha. even after a great day on lemmon i wasnt stoked about upping the speed limit... it was pretty windy out on sat but we got in a great ride. Some fantastic scenery and even tackled gates pass twice. I was out with some really strong riders – jen (duh), ange (who had a jet pack on with her TT) and Julia (who let’s face it is just good). but I was doing my best to hang on. It was great to be able to ride 2 or even 3 across and talk. the traffic was good. they were soo accommodating and gave plenty of room on the roads. We only had maybe one or two honkers who got annoyed. I give Melissa the trooper award. she took a tough fall heading up gates pass, getting her wheel stuck in one of the shoulder ruts, and ended up on the road in the middle of traffic. Scary! But she got up, assessed the damage and got right back on her bike. That’s desire. We had a good day out there and even pulled off a T run, that again, paced pretty fast. At one point someone yells “X pace ladies” and I say “WTF” and the response is, well you are at the front. Crap. It was hot and dry and well the only thing I could think about was the chocolate milk waiting in the van (yes we had a mini van that toted us around all week. Thanks Sharon! For playing mom. I know we were worse than your kids at times…).

So we get home and eat. And eat and eat. Hang out at the pool and wait for the IM’ers to come back. when they did it was like returning from war. 118 miles later.. ugh! Wow. And one crash up gates pass too. (hope all is healing well cheryl!!) Hers required some pretty heavy duty bike maintenance (Jerome to the rescue!). so we listened to the recap of the ride and gave hugs and kudos. Lots of kudos. Its march and these guys rode 118. Wow. Dinner was good. dinner was made better by jennie’s ‘baby doll’ dress. It was made worse when we didn’t all get to sit together and she told the waiter she was pissed. Too funny. He replies “well besides that how are you..” tough crowd. Ha!! one more little tidbit about Saturday night. So I mentioned last time that I was rooming with Sharon. Great girl. We were all pretty tired out sat night from the heat and the rides and all the training.. but once we got into our bed I SWEAR the giggles just came. We sat in there and laughed and laughed. She had me in hysterics for the better part of the night. And over things like the movie Uncle Buck – too funny.

Sunday we said good bye early to a few and the rest of us headed to the pool. It was kind of sad to know that it was our last day. and that we were heading to the pool. Toss up. Which is worse. Not a bad set, a few too many 400s. but we got some more great feedback. A quick transition and off to sabino canyon for one last run. By this time we are dropping like flies (well flies that have to catch planes..) so only 6 of us left. We head out into the canyon at a nice easy pace. Chatting. These are the runs you love. Gorgeous scenery, time and breath to tell jokes and the ability to stop at a flooded point and actually remove your shoes. Yes we were that lazy today. ha! (ok on the way home we ran thru and wouldn’t you know our shoes were dry in like 2 minutes.. but oh well..). back to the house for a monster "clean the fridge and pantry and eat whatever you can buffet (i ended up with guac, hummus and cheeese on toast with a side of eggs. nice) and to throw stuff in suitcases. the same thing happens every time.. it doesn’t fit. Things somehow multiply and morph in size so that even though I had thrown tons of dirty laundry into my bike box the suitcase was still jammed. WTF? Does the law of physics not apply? Errr the law of averages.. something! So the good thing is I got to meet rich, julia’s new husband. Great guy. said good bye to the harrisons (who we love and thank profusely for doing this camp!). and headed to catch the long flights home. i got to watch most of the UT game at the airport but towards the end one guy insisted on standing in front of the tv... and damned if i didnt yell "down in front" to him. At least everything for me was on time. Even if it meant a midnight arrival in RDU.

Good times. Some great new friends and motivation to get things moving this year. Couldn’t ask for more.

PS i found a litle pack of justins almond butter in my bag and am now eating it on my new favorite "vehicle".. rice cakes. :)