Monday, June 18

Rewind

Six years ago I took Marni out on this ride at Betasso. It was the easiest ride I knew because of course, I was a badass triathlete at the time. Insert laugh track here. It did not go well since I neglected to pay attention to the fact that she was on a borrowed bike and hadn't ridden for years before this point. I'm pretty sure it started the long history of talking about finding a divorce lawyer duing mountain bike rides. Luckily I followed up taking her to Betasso by taking her to Hall Ranch which has a opening salvo that is technical and straight up in classic Front Range style. You would think I didn't like her. But somehow she stuck around. Lucky for me, not so lucky for her. I kept taking her along on rides now and then but riding never became a focus for either of us until Scott pushed me into the deep end without a life jacket at Leadville 2005. From then on biking became a big part of my life (again) and Marni was dragged along for the ride. Shortly thereafter the Wednesday night ride group formed. In the past couple years our Wednesday group has evolved a lot. We've got more people now and more women. We've even got more singlespeeders and we've attracted more new riders. I'm pretty sure our accepting attitude and tasty post ride food helps the cause. And throughout all this Marni has been riding. She raced her first race at the hill climb last year, then a road time trial series this year followed by the hill climb again and her first XC race. All the while she's been pushing herself to ride more and improve technically.And last night I got to see it all first hand, just the two of us. We were back at Betasso since we found ourselves in Boulder anyway running errands. We cranked out 2 laps and Marni rode everything at least once. She was climbing up rocks that would have made her hop off and walk not long ago and attacking downhills and corners enough to start breaking traction on the brake bumps. It was fun to watch.


Well this post is over but luckily we're going riding again in the morning on my way to work. I'm excited.

5 comments:

Marni said...

You are wonderful. I like riding with you. I'm so lucky to be able to ride with someone with your talent. I have my own personal coach for free :)

Marni said...

p.s. that little rocky uphill looks SO much easier in the picture

Scott said...

I forgot about all the divorce talks! Funny!

I'm glad the Wednesday rides have evolved and we have so much fun, it's the highlight of my week...

BTW, I also noticed rocky sections look so much easier in pictures.

Anonymous said...

Way to go Marni!
Girls rule!!!!
TMOM

Anonymous said...

Cool, I was at Batasso too Sunday! Shelby and I went! It was his first mountain bike ride since we tried Centennial Cone, and he did really well. He rode it once, I went for an extra lap. It is a great ride.