Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Halloween Cross 2007

Traditionally the Halloween CX race is held at the Flying M Ranch. We went for the first time last year, and had a blast. I wasn't racing last year either, but it was totally fun to watch. And the Flying M was a GREAT venue. I loved that it was so heavily forested. There was plenty of room for camping, racing, and 'spectating' (I use the form of a verb, because in this case it actually implies doing something active). So we were a little sad that the Flying M was shutting its doors, and Halloween Cross would be relocated.

The new venue, for 2007 at least, was Astoria. One of my old haunts. I taught high school in Astoria for a few years, many, many years ago. Almost a decade ago actually. I was surprised to realize that! We weren't able to leave Corvallis until late Saturday morning, and with the schedule of 'cross related events that didn't give us much time to explore Astoria and visit with old friends. We did manage to sneak in dinner with an old friend of mine though. John, it was fabulous seeing you! And I know you didn't want very badly for us to show up at the Talking Tombstones event on Sunday, but we LOVED it.

You're awesome John. You do the COOLEST stuff :) Our camera died after the first picture, so we didn't get a very good picture of John (no, that's not John playing death), but Gregg did run back for batteries (and jackets ... damn it was cold!) so we did get a few pictures of other players.

Anyway, I digress. Halloween Cross in Astoria was different, but totally fun! I don't think it had quite the energy that last year's event had, but it was great. And this year I rode in the Poker Ride the day before the race. I have several physical issues that make things like lifting a bike and running really painful (and not in a good way). The poker ride was just a pre-ride of the race course for a couple of laps. They didn't have the barriers up yet, and everything was rideable. So I was able to stay on the bike the whole time, which totally met my needs (a.k.a. physical limitations), and it was really fun! I'm hoping to race next season, and I can see already that being on the course with a bunch of people is going to completely spook me. But I've been told I'll get used to that.

Here are some photos we took of Halloween Cross

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