Race Recap

Awwww, finally. It’s 10 PM and it’s the first multi-minute break I have had to sit down and write to you since 6:30 AM when the minister of death (alarm clock) awoke me from my sweet slumber. It’s tough being a bike racer because you’re gone a lot. When you are home, you are prepping to leave again, doing laundry, trying to train, WORKING, trying to keep up with your friends so they still love you…. recovery time is hard to come by. I.E. laying down with legs elevated sipping on crys (sorry, couldn’t help the snoop reference) I’m feeling better and better every weekend which is VERY encouraging.

Anyways!! The race!!!! I love riding in Breckenridge. I want to move there. Anyone want to give me a job? And then give me a job somewhere nice and sunny and warm in the winter so I can have cool tan lines all year? 🙂 This was the first time that I felt GOOD in months…and I think it’ll just keep getting better. We’ll find out at Sol Vista MSC in two weeks. I rode up a long road for the warm-up and did some out of body hard efforts and was actually slightly concerned that I blew myself up.

There was a neutral start and I found myself riding with the fast boys for awhile…mostly trying to suck fat tire (no, not the beer…but I wish) until I could not hang on any longer. I made it up most of the paved road. The group had split in two and I was with the slower of the fast boys. We jumped on the singletrack and my legs were happy and telling me, “GO LOONEY!!!” so I did. Maybe a little too hard… I pegged my heartrate at 198 for about an hour. I did the 32 mile loop- the one that uses a large portion of the Firecracker course. The DH was very disappointing- all fire road and I actually blew myself up riding parts of the flat road and the DH. We filed back onto the CO Trail- I was going back and forth with a couple of guys. There were no ladies anywhere in sight, so I was duking it out with the boys. I had some tough moments at about an hour 45 into the race. It was climbing singletrack, I was blown, and getting to the length of a “normal” XC. I tried to sit back and spin the legs out, and backed it off to bring my HR into mid Zone 4. I usually race in Zone 5… I managed to recover and get a second wind. I destroyed the singletrack DH with my Scalpel- my bike is my true love. It is amazing and every time I look at it, I think, “I love my bike.” I really do. I know it’s sick. There was a really long fire road climb at the end and I managed to actually ride it with a lot of power and surprised myself. I crossed the line and was excited, but also wished I was doing the 68 mile race b/c I wanted to keep going. Sick?? Yes.

Following the race, I got to do an interview with the announcer guy and probably sounded like a toolbox…but it was fun anyway. 🙂

Results: What’s up boys? Good thing I didn’t pre-ride the course or every single one of ya woulda been chicked. 🙂 Seriously…at the start, they were like, “yeah..some people took some of the arrows down, so don’t go too fast on the road or you might get lost. Hopefully you brought the course map with you. We even provided a zip lock bag.” Yikes?

My trophy. 😉 hahahaha

Garth (my teammate) got 6th in the 100.

Rocky Mountain High….

It was cool to attend and “enduro” event even though I was a wuss and did the shortened version. The feed zones are full of food and drinks, and you get more than a plastic number when you register. I got a whole goody bag of treats. It felt like looking in an Xmas stocking and Santa knew I was a good girl this year. I might have to try my hand at some 50 milers next year, just one or two. I used to do that my second year racing bikes. If anything, for the food. 🙂

Also, big congrats to Mr. Kerkove. He won the B-68 and stomped the competition. Maybe there was something in that coffee I made that morning….something that beckoned the top of the box…

And yes, there were many in his race… 😛

Yes. Those are huge earrings. They are my podium flare. I did not wear the minimum number of pieces. I wanted to express myself