Friday -

In case you could not quite figure out the photographs from Tripod Thursday, they are from a professional hillclimb. My Brother is actually a former National Champion and these pictures are from his last hillclimb, a few years ago. He retired to ensure that he would be around to raise his children, but  having ridden for several years prior, he certainly sustained more than his share of injuries during his career. Since my brother was following in his Fathers' footsteps, I began going to hillclimbs when I was a young child. Many of my summer weekends were spent in the motorhome, traveling to and from hillclimbs all over the eastern United States. In deed, I used to dream that I would be the first female rider. Although my dream changed as I grew, there was a female rider for a short time before I was old enough to participate, had that still been my goal. While I went to watch my brother a few times, I really stayed busy with my boys and their sports events, so I could not go to most. I did enjoy watching his last ride though, (no, the rider and bike in the middle of the hill are not my brother) it brought back a lot of memories, and there is no doubt about it, those few seconds of the hillclimbers (specialty framed bikes that run on nitro and methane) flying up those steep hills are quite thrilling. Of course, anytime you see a rider flying through the air without his bike it becomes quite scary, especially when that rider is someone that you know and love. I have witnessed the breaking of many  bones over the years, but for the most part, I have to say that the number of severe injuries have been relatively few for the number of men participating. Unfortunately though, there has been some severe injuries, life altering injuries. With this, or any other extreme sport, I guess you will always have this  risk, and that is probably why some, maybe even most, people go to watch these types of events.
As for me, my most extreme event is poring soap and trying to decide what herbs I will infuse into it! Lol