To: labiker@ph.ucla.edu Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 14:02:23 -0400 From: gayathri Subject: Labiker:No Racing (for me), but a good Weekend anyway... (*long*) Man, my farmer's tan is getting worse. :-) Tho I did notice that both Shane and George are getting pinker and pinker. Somehow, Richard is too smart, and stays out of the sun. Team Squid Pro Quo is growing! I'm having so much fun pitting with Alfred, George, Shane, and Richard. They put up with my prima donna rock star imitation... *grin* Plus they dont laugh at me when I can't push my bike backwards 'cause my ankles are both killing me. (more about this later!) Squidboy and I get up bright and early and head up to the track on Saturday morning. I'm pretty sure I slept most of the way up, even the new P.O.D. album I'd bought couldnt keep me awake. But get this, the weather was great! I get into my leathers and out for the second practice. Takes me a while to wrap up my ankles, and I found that the ace bandages were bunching up too much in my boot, so I ended up coming in a little early that first session, filling up a gallon zip lock bag with ice and elevating and icing the ankles. First session was a little scarey. Its been a while. Which way does the track go again? Hrm, where am I shifting? why does the bike feel so crappy in turn 5? (oh, wait, go faster. it feels better.) I was getting turn 5, 6, 7 and 8 really good, and fear was fucking me up in turn 9 (dont look at the edge!!!), but I just worked on finding the right line and staying on the throttle. Boy, am I slow. Even I can tell I am going slow. (*sigh*) But I stay tucked in and try and get turn 1 right. Nope. Didnt get it right. Oh well. But I do have my ass up in the air and my chest on the tank and my arms tucked in when I'm coming out of 9 and out of 6. The only trouble I seemed to be having was moving my left foot around to shift and balancing on both feet to hang off. I wonder if moving it to a race pattern might help? Come off of the track, and my calf muscles and thighs are burning. Its been a while. (As George was fond of saying, "My pants are too tight.") I find the spot that they've left my rear stand and try to back the bike up into it. I can't. Ow. It hurts to paddle backwards. I hear squidboy saying, "Come on back!" letting me know that he's got my stand for me, and I say, "I can't!" but he doesnt hear me (funny, I'm facing away from him and I have my helmet on, I dont know WHY he can't hear me...) and we do this a few times, him saying, more and more irritably, "Come on back!" and me saying, even more irritably, "I CANT!!!" til finally I scream, channelling Cartman "OW, my m*(*&^f**king ankles HuRT! I CANT!!!!", which I think they heard all the way in turn 9. I mean, EVERYONE around me turned around and stared at me. I just about fell off the bike in total shame when Squidboy rescued me, got my bike up on the stand and helped me off the bike into a chair. Fills a bag up with ice, and now I'm sitting there, feet propped up, ice on my ankles and feelin' like a lame ass. :-p ("Fuck you guys, I'm going home!") Second session wasnt much better, but at least I felt faster. This time, everyone knew to just let me park my bike where I felt like falling off of it. (It looked good parked right out front in our pit. :) "Respect my AUTHORITAY!!!!") The new paint job looks good, and even tho I'm getting teased about the colour, I think its going to look even better with some cute yellow flowers on it. For some reason, it takes the boys a while to figure out that we need shade. We get the shade up around 1 pm, and I hang out with the crew. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. They all insisted on working on their bikes, changing where the clipons were, and futzing with the suspension and I'm content to just lay there, ankles on ice, reading a book. You dont see ME getting sunburnt or dirty! Oh yea! where are my GRAPES, baby! (ok, they were really strawberries, but they were really good!) Scott comes to visit, and I flirt outrageously with him, and Squidboy laughs and Scott turns pink, which is, of course, the point. I go over to visit with Pinky and Zina and hang out with them for a while, which was fun. Pinky seems to be doing a lot better -- a lot more confident on the track and faster too! I was depressed 'cause I couldnt keep up with anyone, but that was far outweighed by just feeling like I was getting back into the groove, even with my ankles killing me. I end up only doing 4 practices, but I went out, and each time, tried to concentrate on doing things _right_, and when I couldnt concentrate anymore, I'd pull in and ice my ankles. That actually felt really good. Next month, I'm going to do the practice starts as well, but I didnt get around to signing up this month. The best part was how everyone seemed so happy to see me back. I got waved by all my 500 cc buddies, and that was _awesome_. Chris was waving at me, once as he puts his knee down in turn 2, he gives me a thumbs up. Jeff Pepiot has his knee down in turn 5 and has thumb out, a bunch of the vintage guys were all psyched to see me back out and that was awesome. :) even tho I'm slow, its still ok! The 250 cc GP guyswere all passing me like I"m going backwards, but you know, they'd do that anyway. :) Dinner was at Golden Cantina, and since I wasnt riding tomorrow, I had a Margarita!! whoohoo!!! Thanks again to everyone -- especially to Squidboy for being my best friend and team mate, to Shane, Richard, George for putting up with me on Saturday, for the coolio new racers pitting next to us, to Alfred for coming out on Saturday and racing and hanging, to all my fellow racers for making me know I was welcome back. (I'll let the other Team Squid Pro Quo members talk about Sunday and race day. I just watched, slept and iced my ankles some more. :)) Gayathri >-------------------------------------------------------------- gayathri@world.std.com Calamari Club #002, WSMC #98 '88 FZR400, "gurlzbike" '98 T595, "Huckleberry Hound" "Follow your bliss." - Joseph Campbell