spoiled chinese girl

Alright so this was my last day at the event.  After getting to bed pretty late the night before with a plethora of drinking on my part (I think my main goal was to just get the rest of the booze down the hatch before I have Jeff inherent it all for his last night, plus feeling grumpy in general for being heat-stroked and sun-burnt.) Jamey had set his phone as the alarm for 7am.

When we finally all woke up got dressed and went for breakfast, we noticed a severe lacking in unicyclists at breakfast.  I looked at a clock on the wall and it said it was near 9am.  Jamey looked at his phone and it said just near 8am.  We figured that his phone that is supposed to automatically change timezones didn’t change far enough, leaving us an hour behind.

Jamey finished off his breakfast, then back to the room to pack up his gear and head to the muni.  I followed, but also cleared out a bunch of stuff both of us left behind (mostly the fridge).  I went and checked out, and started driving even though I doubt I would have caught most or any of the muni.

I got lost.

Severely lost.

Lost to the point where I went back to the hotel to start over.

At some point when I was really REALLY close I had to stop and ask a garbage man/sanitation worker for directions.  Got there with enough time to throw out a few quick sobs for being in such a panic for the past hour and a half.  I was okay though.

Followed Darren and the hearse, who followed John, who I believe followed a guy named Andrew, to some sub place that Darren was all into, I enjoyed it, but I enjoyed cherry coke on the fountain even more.  Then to the 10 k and uphill/downhill area.

Got there, and found Darren was entered in the 28″+ 10k race without any gear.  Darren ended up wearing Jeff’s leg armour, Pete’s gloves and my helmet for this race.  And I ended up having Sarah convince me that I wanted to do the 10k 24″ race with her because it was going to be a leisurely ride.  I must have been still way hung over or something because I agreed.

After lots of cheers and honks for everyone who was Canadian that I recognized passing by many times over, it was our turn to get up.  I grabbed my helmet back from Darren (I had my baseball cap underneath the whole time like I did most of the time when competing to keep the sun out of my eyes) and headed to the starting line.

Me and Sarah (Alice wanted to come too but didn’t have any gear and we had no time to get it off someone who finished the 28″+ race) started at the back of the pack, and pretty well stayed there.  I fell off twice generally during uphills.  I have very little speed control on a unicycle and on downhills it’s my plan to barrel through them just to stay on.  So I would wait for Sarah as she cruised at her pace down them and she’d wait for me on up hills while I attempted to mash my way up.  Nearing the finishing line (which wasn’t exactly the start line) I fell off and began walking from being way too winded.  Had to get back on when everyone started going at me to ride.  So I rode to the finish but promptly got off and called it a race.

Couldn’t breathe.

I definitely wasn’t prepared to ride another lap after the first one near killed me.  But I didn’t really want to leave Sarah on her own.  She seemed to have fun though, at the second lap around she was hanging out with someone else who was just really along for the ride, and I ended up jogging beside her from the finish line back to the start line to keep her company.

Lots more cheering and honking until the end of the race, then off to find the uphill/downhill course.  I never had my tire changed out from my holy roller back to my 2.6″ stout so I didn’t feel up to doing either course.  The downhill looked like fun but the decline was pretty steep and I was pretty out of it.  I ended up just finding as much shade as I could and hanging out and saying goodbye to everyone as I was leaving straight from the event back to Toronto.

Finally said goodbye to most of the people I wanted to, and that was it for my NAUCC for this year.

It was pretty awesome hanging out with all the Toronto group for as many days as we did.  I definitely got to know our core group a lot better from it.  Also was fun hanging out with people I’d never met or talked to before.  It reaffirms my suspicions that unicyclists are some of the friendliest people out there.  Not admitting to being star-struck or anything, but it’s cool to meet people I’d only previously heard about (Like John, Irene, Andy etc).  And it’s kind of funny having met people then realizing later just how famous they truly are (Jamey. haha).

The drive home was pretty uneventful.  I stopped off for gas at one point since it’s dirt cheap in the states.  And couldn’t hardly find my way back onto the interstate.  Because no matter what happens, they NEVER have a sign on the side of the road I’m on, and I always have had to pull a U-ey to actually realize I’d passed it.  Bloody irritating.

It was pretty amazing though, driving home and hitting no traffic and no wait at the border.

The border was funny because border control asked me where I was (Saline Michigan) what I was doing there (a week long unicycling convention) to please roll down my window… then after seeing my trials and muni with my freestyle hidden in the opposite direction of my back seat… “What, was this an extreme unicycling event?” “They had all sorts of unicycling sir, but yes, I participated in mostly the extreme uni events”

Got home in about the same amount of time it took to drive there.  Straight through.

I like driving by myself because I can sing as loudly as I want, and take very few (i.e. NO) breaks to make it to my destination in the shortest amount of time possible, but I sort of like company too.  See what happens next time.

Alright.  Today should have been race day part 2 because I still had the 100m event that I was really hoping to get into.  I’m pretty decent on straightaways and as long as I didn’t fall I’m sure I would have placed really well.  Seeing as how the shorter the races got, the more competitors I had, it would have been a true judgement on my riding skill & speed.

Of course since the races started with the 100m they’re short races compared to the epic journeys of the 1500m meaning the races went by a lot faster.  And definitely a lot faster than I had expected, since I showed up an hour after races started, and they were well into the “old geezer” categories of racing when I arrived.  I attempted to find a relay team but the kids who were much excited about it all had their team spots filled and I wasn’t about to venture outside of the Toronto group to find a team.  Maybe I should have, that’s what Emily ended up with and it looked like a whole lot of fun.  I guess my worry about letting down a team that wasn’t “Team Fun” was just too unbearable.  Next time maybe.

So it was a long day of waiting for the Trials competition to start.  In the meantime I went and headed to the obstacle course and all that jazz at the other end of the parking lot.  It was even hotter over there due to the fact that there was even less shade.  I practiced my long jump and my high jump just a little bit because I noticed the more I practiced the tireder I got.  I highly doubt “tireder” is even a word but whatever.

I can only really do static-seat-in jumps so my long jump was around 37 cm on the first go and 31cm on the second go.  The high jump I was told my first jump that was at 8cm I cleared at least the next level above it.  But once the bar got moved that high (I think it was the 11cm) I knocked it both times.  If I’m remembering the event properly, I was way tired and sunburnt at that point and couldn’t really judge that I was way too close to the bar to ever make it over.

I rushed through the obstacle course and the slow board, DQing off both of them without practice runs (I figured if I practiced I’d just get more tired anyways) which I pretty well expected at the event.  I’d never been one to be able to weave in the obstacle course and the practice slow board that the McCormicks made I only made it across once, and I flew across it just to stay on.

Headed to the trials area and started getting ready for that.

I think there was something like 25 or so lines in total.  For the beginners that went first, we had up to the 18th line open.  All of the trials lines were off the ground (by at least 2 inches) so to make the beginners feel more comfortable about being beginners, the rules were if you were a beginner and wanted a hand for part or the full line, you were welcome to it.

That was the most bloody brilliant thing I’d ever heard of.  So it was me, Sarah and Alice (whom were sharing a unicycle, as well as helmet, pads and gloves) that went around to the dirt easy lines.  I spent the majority of my time helping people up onto lines (them, as well as one of the boys from Barrie who’s name I can’t remember) and finished a few lines of my own.  At least once I recall having fallen not only off the line but off the unicycle.  Onto my severely sunburnt shoulder onto the hot pavement.  It wasn’t the fall that hurt, but the bits of pavement and gravel that stuck into my shoulder that really took a few moments to get over.  I completed four lines before I called it quits and grabbed some water and energy drink.  Once the beginners were being called off the course I went to judge a line for the sport & expert categories.

Judged for as long as I could, all while talking to a guy from the Redford group when I started practicing my idling skills and generally just hopping around on Chicklet to pass the time since my trials line wasn’t all that popular.  Even though I wasn’t great at idling I was able to pass on what everyone’s told me about it and hopefully he understands it and can get it because so far I haven’t really.  At this point my idling skills need to be muscle memory.  Which sucks.

Also was able to talk to some kids who live in the area who didn’t know what was going on.  Explained to them that nationals was being held and what the trials was being done.  I have to say kids are weird.  I remember being in the 5-10 age range and not really wanting to say a whole lot, especially to strangers.  And if I said anything to strangers it was a compliment.  But now when there’s little kids around all I get is insults.  The one time I was rollerblading with my friends and did a realy piss-poor job of it going up hill, I heard a maybe 5 or 6 year old girl saying “Mommy! Why is she going so slowly?!” like screaming it out.  And at the convention while I was practicing my idling and my hopping I had a kid ask me what I was doing, when I explained I was judging the trials competition his reply to that was “For a judge, you’re not very good on that thing.”  And I don’t understand how kids get away with that.  I basically just told him “I’m a beginner trials rider, these guys you’re watching are in expert” but I have to say it was still pretty insulting for some stranger kid to tell me I sucked at something I like doing.

Also at some point, which just so happen to be in front of a bunch of people, I was hopping and fell flat on my rear.  I was fine.  Chicklet was fine.  But still.  Andy was nice enough to make the joke that for a dollar I’d do it again.  To which I replied with “I see where your dollar is going! I want at least two!”  Laughter does take pain away.

I finally asked someone else to judge my trials line for me so I could get some pictures of the expert trials riders and got some pretty decent ones.  Then I headed back to the hotel when my battery died to attempt to find the people who borrowed my spare (and my charger) and also to shower and take a nap before the flaming puck.  I wanted to stay to watch the street comp but I was way wiped out.

Napped.  Got to the event right when the street comp was ending so I missed everything.  And it was dark by then so I’m not sure how the judges were faring on judging street in the dark.  Watched the beginning of flaming puck which was cool but not as much fun as in Toronto.  Didn’t really line up to play because I think the sunburns and heatstroke and probably dehydration was definitely affecting me.  Accepted an offer of hanging out by the outdoor pool from my roommate Jamey and headed back.

Beat him back to the hotel at least.  Stayed in mostly a resting “ah… air conditioning…” type mode until he arrived.  I cracked open two bottles of cooler and poured it into my Nalgene water bottle in case we got busted for glass containers at the pool and went over.  Mainly hung out with Roman and Brittney with our legs in the pool while Jamey decided to jump in… and stand there.  Downed my drinks pretty quickly, grabbed a bottle of beer off Jamey and was pretty toast at that point.  I remember heading back to my room, and walking into at least one wall.  Re-filled my Nalgene bottle and headed back to the pool just to hang out and chat some more.  Missed out on the Toronto’s icecream party in the party room but it was nice just laying around outside.  Finished my drinks and me and Jamey went back to our room but not before watching Brittney finally succeed in throwing Roman into the pool.   Giggled then went to bed.

Alright!  I’ve been in Saline MI for the past 2 days and I’m finally participating in something.  I registered myself for everything possible under the sun.  Literally as it comes to show.  But I signed up for the 1500m, the 400m, the 100m, the 10m slowboard (Forwards) the relay race, the basketball (which I missed because I wasn’t there the first day) the hockey, flaming puck, trials, muni, uphill, downhill.  I basically checked off anything I could humanly do.

Monday was all about the races.  They had the obsticle course, the high jump and long jump and slowboards set up as well.  But I wanted to watch people race.

When it was my turn to register for the 1500 I was still thinking “Do I really want to ride 1.5km in this heat?!)  Well my age group was called up and I registered.  And found out that I was the only one in my age group racing.  I went to tell the boys (Jeff & Roman from the Toronto group) that I already won and their only reply was “BAH! There *AREN’T* any girls here our age!”… thanks guys 

Wendy who was one of the organizers was the only one in her age group racing.  She’s one age group above me, so we raced each other.  And basically decided it would be a casual 1500m ride.  I went as fast as I felt comfortable, and Wendy just matched my speed the whole time.  She noticed what I noted, that I’m faster on straightaways than I was in turns.  And I mentioned how I tended to speed up when passing the Toronto group for the fact that I needed to at least look like I was working.  We chatted about lots of stuff while we rode.  I made the suggestion for the last straightaway we should race.  And I rode as fast as I could without falling off (I was pretty winded to be honest of 3 laps of that track!) and Wendy just kept right up with me.  Our times were officially 0.01 seconds apart.

I waited for hours and hours for my next race because sadly it takes that long to do that many races.  I have to admit I found it really silly that in one age category there was a woman who took 25 minutes to finish the 1500.  I mean sure me and Wendy took just about 10 minutes to do it.  But we could have both easily freemounted if we got off our uni’s.  I really REALLY like the idea of having a time limit on races.  Say if an average rider can finish it in X amount of minutes, tack on another 3.  And if the race isn’t finished by X+3 minutes, then end the race.

I did my 400m which consisted again of my age group 19-29 plus Wendy’s age group 30-39 and there were now 4 of us in the heat.  Since there were more people Wendy couldn’t stay to chat but I didn’t mind since it was a much shorter race.  And I must say I’m uber excited in the fact that I came in third out of four riders.  Just barely but still.  Wendy and the other girl in my age group were pretty evenly matched.  Me and the other woman in Wendy’s age group were pretty evenly matched.  So it was fun.

After that I gave up and went back to the hotel.  I wasn’t in the mood for obstacle courses or the slow boards. And there was the parade event that I was in no mood for.  So I didn’t participate in that in a trade-off for hanging out at the pool.  I think hockey was that night.

Toronto had two hockey teams.  Toronto A which was our “stacked” team with all of the serious competitors who we named the Mighty Geese… and their huddle, as well as our crowd cheering was a very simple “HONK! HONK! HONK!”  By the semi-finals, the team name had been announced as “The Toronto Mighty Geese, or the Honkers”

I was on the Toronto B team, which was renamed the Toronto Fun team which consisted of people who weren’t that competitive, and were playing for the sake of playing.  Hockey is a HARD game to play on a unicycle.  I played on Chicklet, my trials uni, because that’s what I’m most comfortable riding, but yea, it was tiring to say the least.  I had two shots on goal when I was in goal, and blocked one of the two.  We lost the game I believe 5-1.  But since we had fun, we were winners.

Back to the hotel for much needed shower and rest.

Alright so I’m backdating a bunch of entries that I will be discussing the NAUCC (North American Unicycling Convention & Championships… or it means something like that) because I want to break my diary up into some nice managable chunks. Anyone who knows me knows I’m long-winded enough without the necessity of needing to cram 6 days worth of events into one blog entry.

So here I begin.

Friday night I was planning on seeing the Simpson movie on opening night, then spending some time with my best friend before crashing at his place then heading off early in the morning. Well the movie didn’t happen because I felt grumpy and we wouldn’t have made it to the showing I wanted to go to, so instead we hit up the bike shop where we settled up some bike repairs (yes I realize this is supposed to be a unicycle entry, shush up) and then to the bar, then to another bar.

So I somewhat stumbled home due to being tired and just ever so slightly tipsy. Not even. I just argue that I was tired. And me and Phil stayed up a good portion of the night and I think we finally crashed around 2am or thereabouts.

In the morning I had to go shift my car before 8am and somehow ended up doing it at 6am to a spot where I could park all weekend without getting ticketed or towed. And after that I couldn’t really go back to sleep so I decided to take a meandering walk down Roncies. Walked from Dundas & Bloor down to Queen & Ronccies before turning around, crossing the street and heading back. All the little shops that started opening at 7am were amazing because they were open. I was kind of hoping the hot yoga studio would have had a 6am or 7am class because I would have taken it just for the sake of being awake.

Phil ended up getting up and he headed off on his day of tubing at the Elora Gorge. I showered, grabbed a bagel and a muffin, some fruit and a giant thing of water, and hopped in my car at around 10:15am.

Start driving.

Continue driving.

I stopped once to make sure I had the right set of directions. (Realized I should have STUDIED my directions before just driving!) Border crossing wasn’t too much trouble. I didn’t have a signed passport which gave me just enough trouble to find a pen. I had to roll down my back window to prove I had unicycling equipment in the back. And it’s always amusing to see the attempt at non-reaction when they say “What’s going on in Saline Michigan?” “An 8 day unicycling convention, sir.”

And I basically drove from Toronto ON to Saline MI in 4 and a half hours, as predicted by my maps, and without any stops or breaks. I had eaten my bagel, and drank a can of Redbull, and that was about my intake until I arrived at the school most of the events were held at, where I then ate my muffin.

Basically passed out on the floor of the Bedford booth soon after arriving, tried to figure out who my roommate was on my own without any luck because I never bother researching who I’m staying with when I’ve only met them online. Got someone to drive me to the hotel so I could check in but left all my gear in my car meaning no swimming nor anything exciting or early registration.

Got myself back to the event. Found my roommate & introduced myself. Headed off to… lord knows if I can remember. The Bedford Experience was the only thing that got me there that day and it was cut down by more than two thirds of it’s original showing. Headed to the hotel for some unicycling after-party fun which included a lot of board games.

Hung out with my roommate over some beer, rum & coke & discussions over extraneous unicycling skill levels, tattoos and driving cross country. Passed out at probably 4am.