SUGAR MT SHOW DOWN

I should have known it was going to be a shitty day when I woke up at 4:50 am to a wasp stinging me in the face (bad). He must have been on my pillow and when I rolled over I manged to jab his stinger deep into my face which shocked the hell out of me. I jumped up and ran to the kitchen to get some ice. Poor Norm was freaking out, not sure what the hell was going on. Well, at least I was up early for my flight...no lecture from the check in lady this time (good).

Nanaimo-Vancouver no problem. Hang out in the lounge like a rock star (good). But when I checked my flight to Charlotte my connector had been cancelled (bad). Chicago. Damn Chicago. I hate flying through Chicago because something always goes wrong. Stupid "windy city". Apparently it is one of the top ten worst airports in the world. I agree. I sat at the end of a very long line up waiting to see what could be done when a check in lady asked if there were any "star alliance gold members". Flying every two weeks has some priveleges so I skipped to the front of the line (good). Unfortunately my options were stand by for two flights that were already overbooked by 5 or a red eye. Lame choices. I asked about flights into Greensboro and she found me one on another airline, a guranteed spot and a hotel coupon so I wouldnt have to drive to Sugar Mountain at midnight. So I jumped on it. Except...when I got mid way, the flight to Greensboro was overbooked and when I finally got to Greensboro at midnight there were no hotels available in the city and my bags were no where to be found (bad). They decided the best option was to taxi me to Charlotte (2 hours away) and dump me (bad). I was pretty calm the whole day until that point. But I was too tired so ended up in Charlotte at 2am. Next day no sign of my bags so I rented a car and drove to Sugar Mountain. My bags finally showed up just before midnight on Thursday. I think I was pretty ripe by then....

I only got one lap in on the course because my legs felt like poo after two days of travel so I had to spin before I touched the 30min climb I had heard so much about. 30 minutes?? All for 10mins of fun muddy singletrack. Then up again. The race was OK but I just could not climb as fast as the lead girls. I had to go my own pace or I knew I would pay for it at the end of the race. I made time on the descents so I asked Mark to register me for my first ever super D. A 12th place finish in the XC and a 9th place finish in the short track was nothing to brag about but I sure as hell got a lot of respect after I won the super D. My first ever NMBS podium - maybe I should give up on teh enduro events and start shuttling? The course felt super easy on the demo Dawg Supreme. 5 inches of travel was pretty smooth compared to my XC set up. The best part was that the whole Kona gang did it too: Barry, Kris, (Ryan was injured from the XC) and we even convinced Mark Matson and Scott O'Dell. Kona cleaned up!

Next stop - Trans Rockies