Trying To Be One Of The Cool Kids

This weekend was the Gran Prix of Gloucester. It was also the first weekend it's been chilly enough for me to wear my brand new skinsuit. I was told this would make me one of the "Cool Kids". ;-) Now, I'm more inclined to wear baggy mountain bike shorts, loose downhill jerseys or at the very least, shorts and typical 3 pocket jerseys. Let's just say that this new one piece, extremely clingy piece of lyrca has required a total change in my entire pre-race routine.

I warmed up Saturday with four laps on the course in the early morning before the racing started. After that, I thought about changing back into my street clothes but because I didn't drive the Fat A$$, I had to change in the "Comfort Castle". So I figured, why not just do it once and throw on the skinsuit. Dumb, dumb move. I throw it on and because it's still a bit on the cool side, I throw a jersey and jacket over and head out to watch the races with my super, giant sized Dunkin' Donuts coffee. After drinking the entire gi-normous cup of coffee and watching a few races, I head back to the Comfort Castle since my bladder is about to explode. Dash in, pull down my sweat pants and ....!!!!! realize I have to take off all my upper layers in order to pee! Oh geez! So now I'm taking off massive amounts of layers and desperately trying to figure out which is the driest, cleanest area of the Comfort Castle to place them. Here I come to the realization why I always see riders walking around with their bib tops/skinsuit tops hanging down. Duh.

Later on, I picked up my number and realized there was no way in hell I could pin it on unless I got totally undressed again. ~sigh. Thankfully, Cathy was sweet enough to pin it for me and careful enough to neither stick me with the pins or pin my undershirt to the skinsuit.

On my way to the start line, I picked up my usual GU and water bottle. As I reached around to throw them in my back pocket, I realized I had none. :( Hmmmm....improvisation...GU packet under the leg band of my shorts, and the bottle, well, I guess I'd just have to figure out how to ride with it in my hand to the start.

So, besides all I learned on the course (more on that in the next post), I also learned skinsuit protocol.