Ray's. or, shutting off the "o shi+" instinct.

check Soupy's photos... I didn't take any this weekend but I'll try to find some to spice up this post...

You walk into Ray's and it feels more like a ski chalet than anything, folks lounging around by a fire and bikes lined up against the wall. But just behind the lounge is the expert rhythm section and kids are doing backflips off a jump and riding 10' up a bowl wall right there. This ain't no normal MTB course.

I guess what I'd say about it is it's severe, or "extreme" as the kids say. Since they had to pack it all in that little space, it's all tough. The drops are steep, the rises are steep, the technical parts are built up so smartly that they punish you if you don't keep your speed through them. It's all looped up into itself so that you could ride any combination of the xc loop, beginner room, and sport room without stopping, continuously, forever. The expert stuff is separated and the expert XC courses are fairly vacant because they're so hard. The expert jumps are insane.

9 of us rolled to Cleveland - Half Acre's Erica, Amanda, Audrey, Ben, Mike, Chris, Adrian, myself, and honorary member BenP- for a team dirtbag mini-training camp. We met some WORS friends there, too. We definitely found more confidence but totally had an awesome time.

We started in the beginner room where, right off the bat, it was terrifying. The drop into the technical parts was just really steep, and the technical stuff is right there after the drop, and it just happens really fast and you have to commit. First thing one of us said (I won't say who) was "I wanna go home." I sort of imagined myself sitting next to the fire for the next two days. More than anything, we just had to learn how to shut off that moment of panic when you come across something crazy. Claire said, "when you do it once, keep doing it 10 times so you know you have it." So, we dropped in, down the steps, over the logs, through the pumps. We worked our way through the beginner room and into the sport room.

At the end of Saturday I was hungry and tired, and after riding a log pile once, I went back to it again, and did a faceplant. I got that post-wipeout-shaky body and suddenly couldn't get myself to ride anything. I basically wimped out for the next hour. I did the easy stuff and went to the hotel hating myself for letting that log pile win. I made a list in my head of things I would totally conquer. Log pile, teeter-totters, pump track, riding the xc loop with no footdown.

We joined Ashley and Claire at the Great Lakes brewery for dinner, which was pricey and had crappy food, but we had a great time. We drank till 2am in the hotel room from the growlers Chris brought back. It was team love.

Sunday morning, it took about an hour to work off the hangover, but then it just worked. I rode the xc loop again and again and again, no footdown. Rode the stuff on my list. Then we rode the sport courses one by one and got through probably 2/3 of them. I just dropped in and went and it felt great. The killer bees were singing.

You shut it down, suck it up, let go, and ride. I guess the best thing I learned this weekend is there's really nothing at Ray's that justifies the use of brakes (except avoiding other riders) and you just have to commit, drop in, and go.