This is an exciting weekend; we get to watch Whitney race here in Virginia again. It's been a couple of years since that's happened. She decided when we were looking over the race schedule at the beginning of the season that she wanted to come home and race at Massanutten again. Since they do four races in one weekend it's worth the plane ticket home.
We knew ahead of time that it's racing in Virginia and you never know what you're going to get. What we got was 65 degrees and a mostly sunny day. One the one hand, awesome to have 65 in February; on the other, that's not good racing weather. At least she knew ahead of time that she only had to pack a couple of base layers and wouldn't need her heavy coat to race in. I have to admit it was nice to watch her race and not have my face freeze. I enjoyed watching the race with the dad of one of the boys on the Massanutten team that we're friends with.
I have to admit one of the best parts of the day was seeing Whitney welcomed back by both the coaches and kids on the Massanutten team that know her. The kids on the team were excited to see her and they all fell into their old roles - the boys were a bunch of goofballs and they nominated Whitney coach when theirs hadn't shown up yet. They look up to her so much. The three coaches that were helping with the race were also really excited to see her; they are so proud of what she's accomplished so far in her career. What I like best is that when she needs help she can still reach out to them even though it's been a couple of years since she's been on the team. They are all more than willing to do what they can to help her move forward and achieve her goals.
It was also good to see Mark and Ellen, the series directors. Since Whitney is racing mostly in Maine she's hanging out with the Maine Mountain series directors but we don't get to see Mark and Ellen often anymore. They do such a great job organizing races, it's nice going to a race they're organizing.
Yes, there was a race today. As usual Whitney was the only one racing open class so she got two more firsts today. The one disappointing thing was that she ran with a master's woman but there was no competition there. Whitney blew her out of the water. Hopefully tomorrow they'll put her with some guys. She enjoys racing them; even if she doesn't win she has someone to chase and that makes her a better racer when she goes against other women.
Off to the races again tomorrow then we see if she can get back to Maine where they're expecting a blizzard.
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