Tour Wrap-Up

The Tour is over. The race that Patrick and I anticipated and trained for all winter. Today my legs ached, and I moved slowly at work, but it is a good soreness.

This year along the course, there was more crowd support from friends and family both on the trail and off the trail than ever. There were friends and family cheering on at Westchester Lagoon (where Aubrey-friend/photographer was there taking pictures while cheering us on!), Earthquake park, and the finish line.

On the trail, there were friends and family doing the race we were able to cheer eachother on. What a difference it makes to have a little support from familiar, caring faces along the way. People would cheer to others, "Looking good!" "Go Bob!", or my favorite thing to holler "Woo-hoo!". People also give this support to strangers skiing. When passing someone I often say, "Nice job" or "great day!". People seem to appreciate this. There was good energy on the race course.

A guy from Wisconsin and I skiied the second half of the race together. His defining characteristic was a 3 inch icicle hanging from the mustache. In the end he finished several minutes ahead. But for most of the course I was ahead and he said I kept a good pace. I called him "Wisconsin" and at the finish line he waited for me and told me how he appreciated us motivating each to keep at good clip.
Patrick skiied most of the race with a 13 year old and they would take turns drafting each other. In the end Patrick ended up finishing ahead.

The first time I did the tour was 11 years ago and I have done the race 4 times total. Finally this year, I found a groove with the race course and am not feeling defeated by it anymore. I felt defeated because I was never able to really improve my time, which killed me inside. It was a big mental challenge.

But this year changed things. I took 25 minutes off my time and placed second for my age, leaving me feeling very pleased. I appreciate it more after years of just wanting to improve my time, to just do a little better. To find out I had placed for my age this year was beyond what I could've hoped to achieve.
What a fun weekend it was!

Zoya

Photos:
-Patrick and myself at the finish. 2 minutes prior, I had been crying tears of joy with Patrick when he told me I got 2:37!
-Patrick and Aubrey M.-the awesome ski photographer! She is an archaeologist and was at the Anthropology conference the week before in Seattle. Picture of she and Patrick was taken at the conference the week before.
-Big spaghetti feed dinner the night before at Will and Beth's house. Amazing baked ziti, elk spaghetti, apple pie, laughter and conversation...
-More skiing pictures taken by Aubrey.