Natz #1

Yesterday I was able to eat 3 full meals...scratch that...I wasn't just ~able~ I was really and truly hungry. I was happy to welcome my stomach back from it's long and lonely journey.

The trip up was a breeze. I walked out of my front door at 8:15 this morning and landed in Providence at 10:15. There were 24 people on the flight so there was plenty of room to spread out.

It is cold as the proverbial miner's left nut up here. Today was sunny, but tomorrow the shit is hitting the fan. 100% chance of snow...6ish inches all coming down during the day (races). My first race (35-39) is tomorrow at 1:00pm so it should be epic.

We got over to the course a little before 2pm and saddled up. The course is pretty extreme. There are long stretches of road mixed up with very technical bits in the grass. There are two forced runs made of "stairs" thrown up on the slope and one forced run up a set of concrete stairs. There are a lot of little ups, downs, and off cambers. The snow and ice make it all treacherous.

The first lap was a little scary, but once I started trusting my tires to hook up I really started to enjoy the track. I did 6 laps checking out lines and getting a few efforts in. I started to get a good feel for the course and the flow, but tomorrow will be a lot different with fresh snow coming down and on the ground.

I'm all cleaned up now and starting to get hungry. Once everyone is washed up we're going to scout out a good dinner and then put our feet up. Tomorrow is going to be fun, but it's going to take a lot of energy, energy that I'm not sure I have after being so ill. I'll be on form mentally at least. I'm going to have to get myself super amped up to compete and give my best. This is the big show (for me at least) and the culmination of a fun season. I'm looking forward to lining up with 160! guys in my race and having some fun.