Trials

Just got word that Paula smoked the Freescale Marathon in 2:45, which means she’s officially qualified for the 2008 Olympic Trials! Yee-haw!

The weather was far from ideal — freezing temps and misty. Leading up to the race they were forecasting freezing rain. At least it didn’t come to that. Still, an awesome performance for her.

She’s pretty inspiritational to me, esp. in terms of dedication and work-ethic. If I had half the capacity to train I’d be winning XC races left and right. Running and long distance mountain biking are very different beasts of course. But it’s pretty cool to see her work hard and reap the rewards.

Tomorrow Louis and I are heading down CDO (Canada del Oro) to scout it out. It’s been far too long since I’ve been through there, and it is under consideration for the AZT 300 course. My guess is that the trail/route is too gnarly even to include in the 300. But we’ll see.

I’m in no shape (feet-wise) to tackle riding from my home. So, I’m going to give shuttling a try. First shuttle for me. We’ll see how I like it. It’s not like this is a 100% downhill, rideable route. The elevation drop is HUGE, but there’s still a ridiculously high amount of hike a bike, overgrowth and other assorted nasties. I’m looking forward to it.