west from raleigh

...like a bad country song. like the ones that screeched out the speakers of my middle school bus and forever gave me distaste for twanged love songs over crappy G chords. The trip to redlands would begin at 1 am, with a three hour drive from boone to raleigh airport, and a couple flights from raleigh to California. Beginning the day at 1 am means no sleep. None. Just a groggy departure, an empty freeway filled cloying, sickenly bright gas stations to get watery coffee in styrofoam cups. The early morning drives, the dark, empty roads, the bike feels like an excuse for this kind of freedom. And there’s always that twinge of envy as the semis stir from their sleep, lights flickering on, running down the on ramps and into the promise of morning.

I arrived at the gate early having allowed extra time for disaster. Apparently about 2 and a half hours of disaster, which when you think about it, would’ve had to of been something catastrophic. So the wait began, and people slowly arrived. Groggy people, nervous people, women dressed up, women in cartoon pajama bottoms, men with starched collars, men in horrible fitting suits, the shoulder seam falling off their arm. Nervous hands, typing hands, one hand on a jelly filled donut and the other smeared over a touch screen. Gross. People clenching five dollar Starbucks cups and heirloom rosaries. Toothy smiles and vacation days, hopefully spent somewhere warm, hopefully remembered through instal-cameras with too bright flash, clenched like truth through over exposed images. And I wonder if they’ll actually look back on these pictures one day, seriously reminisce, “and here we were waiting at the gate! Great times and 6 dollar bottled water!” God, I hate airports.

I guess this blog should be about the race. I’m excited to get to do a bit of racing this spring. Somehow it all worked out (kinda) with classes, despite having to cram a books worth of info while out in CA. The first NRC race of the year is nerve wracking. Our collegiate races have been very short, usually around 42 miles. Redlands stages are going to be twice as long and three times as fast. Almost literally, despite racing with the “B” men all season. Because sorry guys, although you love to make fun of womens racing and the ‘recipe exchange,’ you would be surprised (and dropped) by the amount of badass women out there. So I guess it’s time to go play bikes! The fast girls are fast