The great nearby

My cousin Leif just sent me a beautiful video segment of an urban ski session in BC:

JP Auclair Street Segment (from All.I.Can.) from Sherpas Cinema on Vimeo.

What's unique to me about this video is the focus on details of place- the dripping water, the birds leaving the tree, the man riding his yellow tricycle past the bright yellow bird mural as our jibber zips by. Wide panoramas capture the cityscape on a grey day and draw focus to the brown leaves, the long, solitary fence lines, the smoke rising from factory stacks and vents in rooftops circling slowly. The skier only appears in glimpses and in the background for much of film, until finally these images of place give way to footage of a beautiful downhill run through a quiet neighborhood elegant air and stylish turns all the way down to the BC transit bus waiting to go uphill.

This film is a brilliant reminder of the beauty and potential for adventure that exists, truly, everywhere, so long as one brings an observant eye and an open heart to play.

A Suffering Unicorn

Saturday's CX race was on Halloween weekend, so of course I had to dress up.  I have always wanted to experience what it is to be a magical unicorn.  

Photo from the Seattle Times. 

While it was great fun to get all dressed up, and I definitely felt magical in some ways, my unicorn powers certainly did not propel me to the front of the pack.  The course wasn't my type of course- fast, flat, smooth, nothing technical except those stairs. I was instantly dropped by the roadies, suffering at the back of the race with only a butterfly to keep me company.

Photo by Bikehugger.

About two laps into the race, my left unicorn leg got caught in my rear deraileur, so I stopped and spent a good minute or two getting it untangled and ditching the leggings (thanks to my friend Dan who graciously caught them as lobbed them in his general direction).  The butterfly fluttering way ahead, I spent the rest of the course suffering alone, wishing I had the power in my legs a real unicorn surely would.  Although I wished for more magical results, there was some comfort in seeing Unicorn make the Seattle Times as well as Bikehugger's Sufferfaces.