Last Friday, Tiana and I drove down to Iowa City for Jingle Cross. We were accompanied by our old friend Erin (Second Chance p/b Zubas) and our new friend Rhys May (Loose Nuts) from Georgia.
Well, technically, Erin drove. Like a champ.
I had managed to talk Tiana into going, despite her being very sick. And injured. And exhausted from her day job on the streets as a super cool bike messenger. I had even made her take an ice bath the night before… which had only made her more sick.
Poor thing. I’m a horrible friend.
We didn’t arrive early enough to race on Friday. We raced on Saturday but didn’t have a camera (and couldn’t poach pictures from our friends).
Tiana, who coughed her way through the night, finished a respectable 10th out of 25th, her hand swollen to the size of her gloves by the end.
I finished a few spots behind her (after nipping Valerie sprinting at the finish) after a few technical difficulties with apparel, namely my legwarmers fell down and stuck in my chain a few times. After almost biffing it on a downhill for this reason, I vowed to not wear them for Sunday. Embro would have to do.
Sunday morning!
We went to breakfast at Bluebird. Note the straw wrappers (which we promptly shot at one another, because we’re all adults).
Bully!
Tiana suited up but couldn’t race.
I, burned by my legwarmer experience the day before and apparently unaware of how embrocation works, put a thick layer of embro pretty much everywhere. Here is me at the start, completely unaware of the burning that would come.
The last crash twerked her saddle… just a little bit.
Heidi Goodson (Birchwood) having one of the best races yet. She looked great!