1. Co-led a 21-day backcountry trip with Brevard College. Lotsa learning going on, myself included.
2. Moved to Brevard, NC.
3. Started my new job.
4. Andy graduated with his Master's degree.
5. Raced 12 Hours of Tsali, again.
6. Andy started his job back at Camp.
Life back in NC is going exceedingly well. The area makes it easy to be a one-car family. My 2 mile commute to work takes 7 minutes with minimal sweating, I can take the greenway into downtown and be there in 30 minutes, and I can also ride my mountain bike from my house straight in to Pisgah National Forest (also a 7-10minute ride). We are renting a cute house from a good friend in a quiet area. It's all good.
Working at The Hub is ultra-chill. I'm up to my eyeballs in too much leftover fall/winter clothing and a bunch of new spring styles. We're blowing out some demos & new floor models mid-season to make room for some *new* (shhh!!!) stuff. Oh, and there's delicious beer on tap.
For the 4 year, I rode on a team for 12 Hours of Tsali - this is my third women's team, and my first 3-person team (as opposed to the usual 4-person). I thought I was looking forward to getting in an extra lap, but when the weather turned bad around 1:00p, I wanted to be done as soon as possible. The two other gals on the team this year were two fellow VeloVixens, one of whom was racing for the 2nd time ever! I started us out with the LeMans start (I hated every minute of it... I am not a runner and the run was far too long... it took me the entire gravel road climb to recover), and we jumped into second place, which we held through the finish. The folks at GoneRiding called the race at 10.5 hours due to pouring rain & dropping temps (which I was stoked about, as I was about to embark upon my 4th lap). Wet, muddy, and cold, we took the podium and quickly returned to our cabin for a hot shower.
I got quite a few compliments on my bike streamers at Tsali. "Hey cool handlebars!" ... well, my handlebars are cool, but my streamers are cooler...
Last, but not least, I met an awesome woman, Kara, who is the lady behind SkinFare body balm. She was hanging out at Tsali and gave away some of her awesome skin salve product in the prize bags. This is a great product to get behind. Use SkinFare for dry skin, chapstick, blemishes, anti-chafe, wound care... you name it, it works. And it's USDA-certified organic AND made in Asheville! Pick up your stick at The Hub!
