April 1st, 2005

Adrenaline Freaks Track Day.  NRC is the next day and Novice races the following day.  I decided that having one track day under my belt would be a good idea since my riding time has been so short and I didn't want to be an obstacle for other racers.  My nerves were tight for the 2 weeks before the track day.  I called it off every hour.  Called it back on every other hour.  Cried when sad songs came on.  Rehearsed in my head how I would manage to get my helmet off on time to not get sick INSIDE it.  I was terrified.  But it was too late to back out.  Fast forward to the track day:

Had a GREAT time!!!! Wowsa - I was slow - but I got faster and tried to be smooth and work on my confidence....I trust the BIKE a lot
more now - only slid the backend out once....which is pretty good since the weather was so completely out of whack today - first session,
2 laps of sun/clear, 2 laps of pouring rain, rest of laps sun/clear. Second Session, couple laps under my belt, starts raining on the
straight away, little more rain around one and 2, I'm exiting 2 and DANG - what's this? Rain's not supposed to hurt, I head down the hill
towards 3 and I'm in pain from the 'rain' and I realize the track is turning WHITE. Yes, folks, it HAILED on my while racing!! I slowed
down and went through the next couple of turns with extreme caution (obviously - although it was funny because the corner workers were
waving the yellows with all their might...as IF we didn't know that caution was called for with ICE BALLS on the track!!). By the time we
made it around, the hail stopped and we continued the session. The next couple of sessions were trouble free and relatively nice weather.
Bottom line: I'm definitely addicted!!! I had a great time, didn't time any laps (didn't want that to be my focus) but I definitely improved a lot - smoothness, confidence, lines.
I ended up deciding that I was going to wait on the NRC with WMRRA - I don't want to be lapped and with Louie heading to Portland, I really wanted him there.  Moral support more than anything.  the bike ran great, JC was a great pit mate (and made me thankful for not having to wrench in the pits!), and the weather was typical on again/off again.