Week end in the Hamptons

Lets start with Life...

My life has been very good these last couple of months and this weekend was no different!

The whole crew drove down to Southampton, NY to race the Whitmore's cyclocross SuperCross. 

The drive down there is very nice a we have to take 3 different ferry to get there...as they say "you can't get there from here! " So thanks to Dramamine which has been part of my life for a while cause I have that thing called 'motion sickness'...and its no fun...Once I went on a fishing boat with Tim so he could catch some big ones as he loved to fish and I didn't have any so I tried something else called Gravol...I can tell you that they didn't work at all ...4 hrs of that and your pretty empty! I got on the ground and laid in the grass for an hour before feeling sort of normal again...

anyway back to the hamptons...

The organizer of that race, Myles Romanow is great, he takes care of the women as much as the men...I mean money wise!! We have the same prize list as the men and thats why at the end of september I accepted to race his race and only that one! he also added a couple extra's in there.... Myles and his wife own a very nice restaurant in Southampton called Wild Thyme (129 Noyac road..) I love to cook and I always wanted to be in the kitchen with a chef to see how it is. So part of the come back to racing for Myles race was to be able to put my hands ...on the chicken!! and I did! I met Frederick, the chef  from sweden on monday morning and he showed me a couple of things. He was great and I thank him for his time. I had also put a nice wine bottle on the list because Myles' wine knowledge is impressive...He gave Tim and I a nice bottle to hold on to for a while...

Racing again: I raced and I had the best time. It was cold and windy but when you haven't raced for a while you feel like you can do anything and not much bothers you. And it didn't. I won't lie, I haven't been riding my cross bike at all but...I've been doing so many other activities that I guess I was fit enough to be competitive! I was the last one to be called to the line. I just had to turn around 180degrees and be the first row...going the wrong way! The girls were very nice and gave me some space to pass during the race. I made my way through the field slowly and stayed relaxed. I couldn't catch Georgia which I don't think was possible anyway (she is an Olympian who's on form!). But I held on to 2nd both days. Nathasha Elliott made me work hard on Saturday as she really improved since last year, and my roadie friend Laura van Gilder who is new to cross made me step on the pedals on sunday to keep my spot. Thanks to you both !! and good job.

Sometimes at races you stay at hotels, sometimes at host housing...sometimes that can be painful. Tim and I stayed with Lois, a lovely woman who made us feel at home right away and had some great life stories to share. When we got there friday night she wasn't home and there were 2 doggies at the door. Myles showed us around and told us that we need to take the dogs out with a leash if we wanted to...I was busy and not really listening and didn't take that very seriously...I took the big dog out for some important stuff he needed to do. He did it and then stopped, looked at me....and bolted! It was dark and I got nervous that we would lose the husky, I didn't even know his name. Jeremy was very nice and started to run after the dog with his Iphone talking to Tim and trying to grab the dog at the same time. Running like a deer through the bushes and the yards like a mad man, he finally got him to come back home without even touching him. A real dog hunter! I ended up in the neighbors yard...running in the street ..with no luck but the dog was already back by then...I smiled. The next morning when I met Lois I told her my little adventure...She smiled too.

Sweets of life.

I love candy and the last couple of years every time we drove down to the Hamptons we would pass a candy store called the Candy Man. Well this time, I was not going to pass and just stare at it ...We stopped and bought $45 of treats and headed for the boat. Perfect.