In the night, again

I was talking to my mom last night and she asked 'When's that ski race?'

 

Tomorrow.

 

She may have said a few more things, but essentially said: Be careful.  Stay warm.  Have fun. Send me the tracking info.  Here it is.  Trackleaders.com

I was writing up a 'race resume' this afternoon for a little snow bike race in the great state of AK and I got to listing events that I've done in the past couple of years.  I had to smirk as I thought of the evolution of my mom's worrying about me over the time period.  Way back in 2009, she thought I was crazy for doing 100 mile races.  When the timing system for 24-hours of Moab went screwy (I basically checked out for another lap but then realized I didn't have to do it, so the timing had me out on a 4+ hour lap) my mom did what all mom's do: she worried.

 

In 2010, she watched with a certain amount of amusement as Chris and I packed bikes and gear for our first attempt at racing the Colorado Trail.  Out on course, she constantly worried when my SPOT tracker coincided with a giant storm cell (which was approximately 90% of the race).  They watched me get pinned at 12,000 feet the last night, I'm sure worried sick while I was snuggled up in my bivy, annoyed at the weather.   After that, going off to Australia to race at 24-hour Worlds didn't seem all that insane, but my dad, who ran my pit, thought it was nuts.

 

In 2011, my mom watched again with amusement as we packed for the CTR.  She went to yoga with me the night before and took me to Safeway to stock up on last minute food items.  Then we went to Little Budda for dinner.  She seemed less worried with the more promising weather forecast.  That, or she finally resigned herself to the idea that her daughter maybe didn't turn out exactly as planned.

 

I think I elevated her level of worry to a new level by signing up for Arrowhead.  She thought I was going to freeze to death but luckily the race did a good job with updating the splits online since I'd failed to get my SPOT to work.  

 

Now a 40 mile ski race to Aspen doesn't seem to phase her.  Call when you get there, she told me.  Have fun.  My mom is awesome.

Comments

[cat morrison]

Yeah....I love Moms!!!!!