It's the weekend I've both been dreading and looking forward to all year long. It's time for the NCAA Gymnastics Championships, which are being held about 20 minutes from where I live, and it's also the weekend of the Spring Tune-Up Ride, one of my favorite bicycling events in one of my favorite parts of the state.
I knew all along there would potentially be a conflict between the two events. If the Gym Dogs had not qualified for nationals (as in the horror we experienced two years ago), the conflict would have been easily resolved. But they did qualify, creating the next quandary, which semi-final session they would be in. If they were in the noon session on Friday, I wouldn't be able to ride, drive the hour from where the bike ride is taking place, and get to the semi-final session on time. As luck (?) would have it, however, they wound up in the 6:00 PM session tomorrow, which means I can get up at an insanely early hour for someone on Spring Break, drive about an hour to ride my bicycle 57 miles, shower and change clothes, drive another hour to the competition venue, and then get home around 9:30 or 10:00 PM.
How the Gym Dogs do in their semi-final session tomorrow night determines my Saturday activities. If they are one of the top three teams in their session (I hope I hope I hope I hope I hope), they will advance to the Super Six on Saturday at 4:00 PM. If that's the case, I'm planning to drive BACK to the location of the Spring Tune-Up, ride my bicycle either 57 miles again or some shorter distance (how long it takes me tomorrow will determine if I need to shorten the ride and still make it in time for competition), shower and change, and drive the hour to the competition venue again. The good news is that I should be home by 7:30 or 8:00 PM.
If the Gym Dogs do not qualify for the Super Six on Saturday, I plan to ride the century ride (100 miles) in hopes that one kind of pain will dull another kind. I won't attend the Super Six (although I have a ticket) if my team isn't in it. It's not much fun.
I'm unlikely to ride at all on Sunday. That's the day of the individual event finals, and the competitors for those are determined by the semi-final sessions tomorrow. (I find it a little odd, that you can still qualify for event finals even if your team doesn't make it. And you could totally SUCK in the Super Six, but if you were "on" for semi-finals, you can still vie for an individual championship. It's nuts.) We should have at least one gymnast in the event finals (last year we had 4, and we didn't even make the Super Six), and since those start at 1:00 PM on Sunday, I'm not even going to TRY to ride and do all that driving.
I'm so sorry I have bothered you with all this (mostly useless) information. If it makes you feel any better, it is very helpful for me to put complicated plans in writing.
This will be so much easier next year, when the national championships are in Los Angeles. Then I only have to worry about riding fast enough to get back and watch online.
And by the way...where did my Spring Break go? This is the fastest week I've ever experienced. I can't believe it's already the end of the week.
No comments:
Post a Comment