We went down to Portland over the weekend. I think it was the first time I ever went to Portland w/o going to Powell's. But we did go to Alpenrose and race in the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge. I've actually never done one of these big weekend before; I've had to miss Marymoor's FSA Grand Prix for the past couple years. I was way more intense than normal Friday night racing (could have guessed that of course), and the nerves/pressure made people more tense, less talkative, and generally less friendly than normal. It was actually a bit weird because it made me realize that, no matter how much I come out or what I think of myself, I think people view me more as a roadie who races track or a cross racer who races track instead of a track racer, so I'm part of some cool kids' clique. I guess part of it is because I often end up missing a bunch of racing due to research or something else. And I'm not really on a team known for it's track team. Plus I'm not really amazingly good or anything. But whatever.
We got down there on Friday after an EPIC drive from Seattle; what should have been about 3 hours (reasonably accounting for some traffic) took 4.25 hours! The traffic was in weird places, too. Tacoma and Seattle were smooth sailing, but basically from just south of Tacoma (Ft. Lewis-ish) through Olympia, it was awful. Chris and I had to do qualifier races because I'm a lowly 3 and he's just a 2. He did awesome, got 2nd in his race and obviously qualified for the rest of the mass starts (10 qualified from his field). Only 4 qualified from my field, and I was just stupid during the race. I get putting myself in the wrong place at the wrong time and just couldn't figure out the track, which is completely different than Marymoor (shorter, significantly steeper, and bumpier). Luckily they held a 3/4 race before all of the elite races. That was all for Friday, and we went into Portland to stay with some friends who recently have moved there.
Saturday, I didn't have anything in the morning, so I just hung out and got sun burnt while Chris did a 110 lap (!!!) race, where he ended up in 10. It was a decent result, especially since half the field dropped out. We then met up with his sister and her husband, who live in Eugene, for lunch and to see if we liked her Honda Fit since we'll probably be in the market for a car soon. Only downside to her car was that it's an automatic. I raced a really short scratch race in the afternoon, got 5th. It was one of those races where I saw where I needed to be for 2nd or 3rd about 30 seconds too late.
Sunday, I had a keirin and miss & out. I ended up 5th in the miss & out, being consistently mediocre. The keirin was a complete fail, for both races that I did. I had been thinking about doing the Vancouver, WA Courthouse Crit but got on the trainer and just felt awful. Chris, however, did his race and got 5th (despite complaints of OBRA races being sketchier than WA races), which in a field of around 40 is certainly not mediocre.
The drive home was pleasant and not anywhere near as long as the drive down, luckily. I won't be racing the FSA race because we leave for Costa Rica on Friday night. Despite my middling performance, I'm really glad to get this sort of experience. Alpenrose is SO different, it's amazing.
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