Longbranch State Champs 2008

Loooooongbranch - 5 laps of suffering.

I'm not the greatest hill climber so I thought why not do Longbranch and work on my climbing? It seemed like a good idea in Seattle.

I got dropped on the first climb but wasn't last. Somebody from behind (Norine?) caught me and we worked together to catch two group health girls (Nancy and Trish?) . The four of us worked together really smoothly. It was fun. But then we hit the hill again and got separated. I caught the group health girls again but they decided to call it quits I couldn't see Norine behind me anymore. I caught one other woman ahead of me but she quit too. So I decided to do one more lap. And well maybe just one more. Then I only had one left so I figured I might as well do all five. Hopefully the legs get stronger for all of this. I kept on seeing Annette going the other way for training. I figured if she was still riding (injured shoulder and everything) I should at least be able to finish.

I think that next year I will do some long out of the saddle climbs to better prepare myself for staying with the group. I went though all of my water too.

There was a killdeer bird nesting in the parking lot, just like the ones at the track on Friday. This time I spotted the speckled eggs that look like rocks.

When I got back to Seattle my legs were aching so I took a swim in Greenlake. Boy it felt good. All of the swelling went away and the legs were happily numb.