Ogden, Utah

I've just been having a bit of a dilemma. Deciding on a beverage to have with dinner, A Margarita or a glass of Kombucha tea. It has been 10 days since the Snowmass party now.. so guess which one won out. I wonder though what tequila is like w/ Kombucha?

Well I promised an Ogden report.

It really was a super fun weekend. We stayed in a venue side Condo ( expertly organised by Dara Marks Marino). #22 Lakeside and we couldn't have been any closer to the course without actually camping out in the Earl Lodge bathroom ( a viable option by the way - Earls Lodge was the Snowbasin Ski area facility and it was extremely fancy). Our Condo was stacked with as Brian put it (estrogen) and talent. We did have 4 resident boys, however they couldn't quite compete with the personality of Liz Vollmer , Sage, Kristi Lanier and Dara.

Photo - courtesy of Will Kelsay ( sad to say I bypassed the post awards party - was still burned from post Snowmass!).

Ogden I thought had a neat vibe ( Tom Speigal owner of Team Unlimited summed it up well. " Other venues embrace us - Ogden UT romances us") .

The race had its logistics, with 2 transitions one at the bottom of the 'hill' and the T2 approx 3000 ft and 10 miles up the road at the Snowbasin Ski area. Brian nearly got caught out as we drove up to T2 early on Saturday to leave our running stuff when he realised his shoes where in the Condo garage. It worked out okay though - we had heaps of time.

Brian had the race of the day in my opinion. He had a solid swim exiting in 55 and passed 52 people to post the fastest bike split and the fastest run split to get himself into 3rd and on 'the podium'. this was his best result by far (when its been a full XT with a swim) and well deserved.

My swim was a bit rough and dissapointing to me as I thought I was capable and experienced enough to get the better out of myself on the day. However I did have a good bike and a good run and I really felt strong and in control of my effort so that was encouraging. I finshed 3rd and am now in third for the series, with the race drop I'm tied with Candy Angle going into Tahoe.

Now we have a nice long build up to Nationals in Tahoe and Worlds in Maui. We are excited to have the time to work on our weaknesses and hopefully see some improvement.

As Gunni doesn't have an open pool right now I've been going out to the river and swimming. Feels safer than the lake and is closer. The view from the water is pretty neat, its in the canyon and highway 50 is just up from the river so I figure that if anything where to go wrong - get eaten by a trout or something - I could just get out and walk in my wetsuit along the road. that'd be one for the books!

I am going to Boulder for a swim lesson on Friday and am really excited about it. I may also race the Tippery creek Winter Park race too. I'm thinking about racing the singlespeed just for a change of mental space.

Brian has a buddy coming into town to ride for the weekend. Wonder if that was planned?

enjoy

Jenny.

For Ogden race articles check out - http://www.xterraplanet.com/, or http://www.insidetri.com/. http://www.trihive.com/ has some good photos.