I can race

Well...Suzanne inspired me to post something new...and post the draft I created 3 weeks ago. 

Our company decided to sponsor a team for the Aspen Times Recreational Race Series.  When I heard the term "recreational", I immediately threw my name in the hat.  BIG MISTAKE! 

I showed up early and eager to participate last Saturday, paid my $20 to park and proceeded to walk around Aspen Highlands for an hour looking for other race participants.  I discovered that things don't neccessarily operate in the mountains like they would anywhere else in the world.  The registration desk that was to be open at 8am was finally located...in a completely different location...at 9:10am.  After I registered and paid my $15 for the racing bib, I was told that this would not be a race day but a race clinic day.  That calmed my nerves considerably.  I rode up the chair...alone, and skied down to the course where I found a handful of people gathered around the starting gate.  When it was my turn at the gate I was told to take a practice run to familiarize myself with the gates.  The next time down would be when we received instructions.

As I was strapping my free foot on my board, I realized there was a bumps course to my right that a bunch of teenagers wearing race bibs were flying through.  I looked to my left, and there was a slalom course with a bunch of pre teens racing through.  WHAT WAS I DOING HERE?  I saw the first two gates and skiied towards them.  They were fairly easy!   This is going to be fun!!  Then....the course dropped over the side of the hill.  The turns were so tight and the run was so steep, I blew through the next couple of gates...all the while being watched by all the "kids" racing on either side of me.  I WAS MORTIFIED!

I did my best to make it through the course and proceeded to the lift line.  Once there, I saw that the shorter, slower lift to the course had a line of at least 50 people who were boarding the chair 1 or 2 people at a time.  I made the brilliant decision to ride the quicker, longer lift towards the top of the mountain that had no one in line.  I got to the top of the lift and felt good about my decision...until I realized I was below the trail that would have allowed me to ski back to the race course.  After an extremely quick ride down the mountain, I rode the slower, shorter lift back to the race track.  That was a nice waste of 30 minutes of my "clinic" time.

I attempted 3 more runs through the course.  The whole time I was trying to ignore the semi professional racers who were participating in the clinic with me, and I tried to give myself a pep talk every 30 seconds when the self doubt would come crashing over me like a tsunami engulfing crab on the beach.  The course was becoming icier and tougher with each pass.  Craters started to appear in some of the turns where the skiiers had swept every little bit of snow away and the ice had began to chunck away.  It was my turn at the gate!  As I strapped my free foot in to my binding, the clinic "instructor" informed me that this run would be filmed from below so everyone could view it at the end of the day....GREAT!  Turn one...good, turn two...still Ok, drop off the side of the hill towards the third gate and I blow through it.  I missed the next gate completely because it took me so long to finally catch an edge and make the turn.  Forget it...just ski towards the next gate...blow through that one, fall on butt, hurt arm, pretend not to care and race towards another gate...there it goes...WHY AM I EVEN ON THE MOUNTAIN!?!?!?  Forget it, throw hands up in the air, ski straight down the middle of the course, force a smile at the camera man and tell him that should be entertaining when we view it at the end of the day.  AND that's the end of my racing career.  I headed for the truck and drove to town as quickly as possible.  I need to comfort myself with some McDonals....