PanAms Blog
After Cincy my dad, Becca, Kerry, the dogs, and I headed to Becca’s parents’ house in Ohio for the week. I didn’t ride much because I took a rest week to see if it would help my legs feel better. It was nice to have time to bake and hang out with Sherm. Sherman was in heaven since Becca’s parent’s property is rightp in the middle of the woods with endless amounts of smells. After a relaxing week at her house, filled with lots of stories about Becca’s childhood (now to be referred to as ONLY Beccy or Beckster), my dad, the dogs and I headed up to Canada. We crossed the border with ease, which I was shocked about with the trailer, RV, dogs, etc. We arrived in Midland, Ontario on Friday to check out the course. It was an awesome course with a lot of off campers, tricky turns, elevation, and some sand sections right along the water’s edge.
After pre-riding we headed to my mom and my cousin’s house about 30 minutes away. She was gracious enough to host us all for the weekend. She even let my little beagle come to the house and wasn’t mad at him when he peed on the bed. He has never done this at home, I don’t know why he decided to pee all of a sudden. Like most people she just thought he was adorable and the smallest beagle she had ever seen.
I won’t go into too much detail about Saturdays’ race because it was not the best for me. It was really muddy, which I was thrilled about, but I just couldn’t get my legs moving. I was hoping this was from the rest week and Sunday would be better.
Sunday were the Pan American championships. I had a decent start and found myself with Laurel Rathbun for most of the race. I was glad to have her tall frame to draft off on the long road start/finish straight away. My legs were feeling better, not perfect, but definitely better and I felt like I could push more. I was further encouraged when I heard little Sherm cheering for me along the course. (The women raced second so Kerry was actually able to spectate and cheer along with Sherman). Laurel and I worked together until the last lap to hold off some chasers and finished 12th and 13th.
On Monday before heading to Massachusetts I got to visit my 90 year old grandma who lives Toronto. It was great to be able to coincide the race weekend with a visit to her. The dogs were even allowed to come into the nursing home to say “hi”.
This week, my dad and I have been hanging out in an RV park in Massachusetts until the Northampton UCI race this weekend. There is a massive dog park here so Sherm is thrilled. Even though the campground is pretty empty this time of year and there are no other dogs, he doesn’t care, he loves to be able to be off leash and sniff to his heart’s content.