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I had second thoughts about racing. I had been home only 3 days after a long, exhausting 3 week road trip, my race the weekend before quite frankly did not go well, and I’ve been fighting a sinus cold for over a month. (which I started antibiotics for yesterday, be gone please!!!)  I pushed aside my misgivings and went anyway hoping I’d still have some legs.  For our team race report, I said I showed up to race because I wanted to earn my burger and beer (and I did… at Rueben’s in Boulder. They have tons of Belgian beers on tap and my beer consumption has been very very limited in the last 2 months trying to “shape” up for the summer. No fun).

Anyway, back to the racing! The information said we started at 8:18 AM behind all the men. I was grumbling about that because starting behind all the men has affected the outcome of several of the RME races I’ve done in the past when I had finishes separated by only a few seconds. Tons of course traffic definitely balled that up. I rolled back from my warm-up about 15 min before when I was supposed to start and heard them saying 30sec till my start. Fortunately, the order had been changed and we started behind the pro men…and luckily I didn’t miss my start!

My competitive fire was back after the lackluster at Whiskey. It was a HUGE relief. It showed in my start. I started at my normal start pace, but I guess the other racers weren’t expecting that.

Blurry Iphone video, but you get the idea!

Kelli Emmett caught up to me and got the hole shot, and I didn’t mind because she’s a great bike handler and I had never actually ridden right behind her before. I wanted to pass and push harder at the start, but I made myself hang back and not get too excited.  We rode together for a good portion of the first lap, but she slowly pulled away from me and opened up about a 30-45 second gap.  I was impressed with how smooth and relaxed she looked.  I felt great for the first half of the race and was turning over on average for 3 laps, 47 minute lap times which was right on pace with my goals.  My  half marathon split was about 2:21 and I felt that I was racing at a hard, but comfortable pace that I would be able to maintain for 60 miles.  My strength is normally a consistent pace in lap races like this.

Chasing

Thanks to Les Handy for being all over the course and shooting so many great photos of everyone!  This particular little wall climb was tough!  It was very short, but required a big push late in each lap.

After fatigue and dehydration got under my muscles, these short steep climbs became pure torture!

I was taking one bottle per 10 mile lap.  I thought 24oz of water in less than an hour would be enough(it has been in the past).  In the end, it was a mistake when the sun started beating down on us. By the time I started taking 2 bottles on laps 5 and 6, it was too late.  Dehydration got me.  I was forced to slow down, I was dizzy and disoriented, and it felt like my throat was stuck together.  I drank as much as I can to get me to the finish in one piece, but my lap times dropped to 50 minutes.  Kelli had less than 3 minutes on me halfway through the race… a gap that opened to 12 minutes by the finish after my failed attempt at staying hydrated.  I’m wondering if the need for more water than normal was due to the sinus crap I’ve had going on for the last month.  My face was caked with dried mucus (GROSS) and I was coughing a lot… maybe that required I put more water in my system, or maybe I was dehydrated to start.  Whatever.

Matt had good form!  I was so glad he was there!

I ended up forgetting about dehydration on lap 6 because my bunion got really angry.  I have to cut holes in my shoes on the outer part of the shoe for the bunions (or get surgery with a 6 month recovery period).  These Northwaves are pretty new and they were hurting at the Whiskey as well. I  brought scissors, but they were too weak to cut the shoe.  I figured it would hurt, but not be a huge deal.  It got so painful I could barely push down with my left foot and my left big toe got very sore from my foot being pronated inward from the swollen bunion!  I’ll save you the photo of it at the finish, but it was not pretty.

I finished in 2nd for the day, a result that I’m happy with.  Kelli got 3rd at the Whiskey and beat me by about 30 minutes the weekend before.  12 minutes with a few mishaps(which were entirely my own fault)…. I’ll take that.  It’s improvement.  It was also the first time I could keep up at the start… maybe these intervals Jason has me doing are working!

Limping into the finish… HORRIBLE bunion and big toe pain. I couldn’t put weight on my foot for about an hour after. People thought I crashed and got hurt. Nope, just my gross foot being compressed in the shoe.

Unfortunately, I missed the podium… first podium I’ve ever missed. I was helping support the half marathon and there was no announcement that it was going on at the other side of the venue. Woops, sorry ladies!

It was really nice to see all my Colorado racer friends!  I’ve got some big adventures planned this year, but I’ll be missing a lot of my Colorado races that I love so much!  It’s also cool to see the growth and improvement of the RME Series.  New venues, a little bit of prize money (equal payout next time.. please??), and great organization.

Now I’m trying to get healthy, and get back to training.  I have to go out of town again for work for most of next week, but in the time before and after, I’m getting ready for Trans Germany which starts June 6.  55 solo women signed up… probably the biggest field I’ve ever raced!

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I knew while warming up that it was going to be trouble for the day. I didn’t feel bad, but I didn’t feel snappy and alert. I was able to ride comfortably in the group at the start until the familiar road started pitching up. My goal was NOT to blow up at the start – something I had done every time I raced at that venue. I lost contact with the lead group… but I did not blow up. I was in a good position entering the singletrack, but had a really stupid crash washing out my front wheel going uphill. The person in front of me was on a 29er FS bike which allows for a little bit slower moves to get over the rocks vs. my 26 inch hardtail which required more power and precision to get over rock. I was trying to keep the momentum, but ended up going down in order not to slam into her. No big deal, I lost a few spots, but there were a train of girls were behind me.

I am not sure what happened to me mentally, but I gave up. I didn’t care. I am ashamed to say that I pulled to the side of the trail to let the train of girls behind me go by so I could ride alone. RIDE alone. I quit racing. Something that was also apparent in my Garmin file. My coach said, “What were you doing in the middle of the race?! You were riding in zone 2!!!” I was in no man’s land (errr, no woman’s land). I wasn’t angry or frustrated. I was oddly apathetic. I just wanted to ride my bike and I didn’t want to suffer. I felt emotionally tapped out and had no drive or motivation to chase anyone down. Weird. But I accepted it.

My parents were cheering me on! My mom is so cute. haha!

Once I hit the descent to Skull Valley and started to see other people, I woke up a little bit. I also saw how far back I had fallen in the field and was embarrassed. Once I hit the turn around to come back up the climb, I decided I should try harder. “What was I thinking earlier in the race?!” I cranked on the throttle and made up about 5 spots on the long dirt road climb in a little over an hour. I saw a group of 4-5 girls about 30 seconds in front of me up the road for the last few miles, but the weird apathetic feeling came back. I didn’t want to try to chase them down. WHY? In fact, it was some of the girls I had pulled aside for on the trail at the beginning of the race.

I rode the rolling singletrack back to town cautiously. I was riding really sloppy and my head felt foggy. My reaction times were abnormally slow. I didn’t want to flat or crash, so I backed off. “Who cares, I’m not in the top 10 anyway.” On the pavement back, I caught Suzie (luna) who had flatted earlier. I caught her because she had stopped to fix her flat earlier. Turns out quite a few people flatted, but chose to ride their flat tire into town to the finish. Suzie and I ended up duking it out on the pavement and ended with a sprint. That was probably the most exciting (and painful) part of my race.

Sprint finish!

I was feeling depressed when I crossed the finish line and worn out… not really physically as I got stronger the longer the race went on (the token endurance racer trait), but just tired of being on the road for so many weeks. I wanted to go home. I was also mad at myself for not trying my best.

It was wonderful to have my family there when I finished along with a lot of my friends. My dad brought some Marble beer from ABQ for me and Jeff delivered the Marble Red to the finish line for me (poor guy was holding it forever waiting for me).

It took me a couple hours to get out of my funk, but I turned my attitude around and enjoyed the rest of the evening.

Everyone has an off day, and I guess it’s okay every once in awhile. In the end, there were 8 of us within 3 minutes of each other. That frustrated me because I wish I would have tried harder earlier in the race. The trade show duathalon had gotten to me after booth set up and 4 days at the booth just a week before at Sea Otter followed by a 2 day drive and 3 days of the booth at Whiskey 50 leading right up to the race. I needed down time to recharge my batteries after weeks on the road and having to be on all the time, and that down time wasn’t available. I let myself be bummed about it for about an hour and a half, and then I forced myself to change my attitude. “There will be other races. Get over yourself.” … and my natural jovial self returned.

It was really great to see my friends and it was very very special to have my family there! HUGE thanks to Justin Mann and Chris Hanson for the bottle hands ups!

When I read what I wrote in this post, it sounds like a bunch of excuses. Even if I had my best day on the bike, I barely would have cracked the top 10. Must…get….faster…!

I got home on Tuesday and get to sleep in my own bed for another 1.5 weeks before I have to go to Texas for work and dealer tours in the DFW area. I did another race yesterday(and am relieved that my desire and competitive nature was back in full force). Report coming very soon!

The short of it – I just got home Tuesday from being on the road for 19 days. 19 days, 6 states worth of driving, and over 3,200 miles. I’m normally a high energy person, but today you’ll have to scrape my carcass off the floor. I’m tired.

The last place I wrote about was Santa Cruz. From there, we went to Monterey and set up the Ergon booth for Sea Otter. Sea Otter is the biggest cycling festival in the country (I think). From the racer side, it’s a place where you feel you have opportunity to brush shoulders with some important people and race against some of the best out there. From the industry worker side, it’s fun but a lot of work. I used to try to do both at the event, but 2 years ago I told myself I wasn’t going to do that to myself anymore. This year was a CX race… and next year I think I might have to jump into the CX race in full costume.

Sea Otter is great because I get to see everyone I haven’t seen since the bike season ended the year before. It marks a fresh start to another season, especially in business. Over at the Ergon booth, we released our new saddle – the SM3 and I finally got one to put on my bike! We had very limited stock, but the full line will be out in June. So far, all of us like the saddle – it’s definitely mountain bike specific. Jeff and I tried to sneak in training each day at Sea Otter by riding to and from the event via a particularly hilly route. It’d be about an hour one way. I got up early and did some interval training for a few of the days. One of the highlights of my Sea Otter this year was participating in the SRAM Ladies Lounge as a pro. I was really proud to see so many women. It was so popular, people were standing outside and men were trying to participate. There was a panel of pro racers from all disciplines, and the attendees got to ask us whatever they wanted, plus free food, booze, and a raffle. Does it get better? Wait, it does… it was led by Rebecca Rusch. We also rode the mountain bike Grand Fondo and gave away some product. After 1 day of set up, 4 long(but fun) days standing at the booth, and training, I was definitely beat.

After Sea Otter came to a turbulent close, we broke down the booth and drove 2 days to our next event in Prescott, Arizona. We set up the Ergon booth at the Whiskey 50 expo and worked there during the event. It was really fun to meet people and I was flattered with all the people talking about the Yak Attack! Awesome!

On Friday, my family drove to AZ and watched me race for the first time! Jeff and I worked the Ergon booth all day and we had the fat tire crit that night. I rolled some Continental Race King 2.0s, but there was high stress in the arena for what tires people were running. The skinniest allowed was 1.5 slicks, and there were definitely a lot of those rolling around! The prize of the crit was that if you finished in the top 5, you got a call up for the Whiskey 50(which has a long road start). I didn’t really care about my result since it didn’t mean a whole lot, so I decided to do stupid things to see what would happen. Stupid fun thing 1: Take charge at the start. Nina, Chloe, and I charged forward off the start (plus, there was a 100 dollar prime on the line which seemed to go in one ear and out the other, but I was going for broke anyway). I held my own in the top 2-3 for a couple laps until the inevitable happened – the fuse blew on the dynamite and I couldn’t go fast anymore. I wanted to see how long it’d take me to blow up riding at my limit and I’m glad to say that my high end is starting to come back after quitting XC racing years ago. I’ve started doing some intensity again.

Nina and I leading the charge at the start

Lap 2 attack

After that, of course I went backwards in the field, but I had fun and was really excited that so many spectators came to watch and cheer us on. It made the blinding pain worth it! Stupid fun thing 2: Ok, so I’m going backwards… I see a dude in a gorilla costume. He’s holding a water bottle with a familiar liquid. I reach for it and take a sip… WARM IPA! It was a little too warm… and I took it again on the next lap. I only took tiny sips, but it was enough to make me puke in my mouth. I should have learned from the beer hand ups I took in CX and the PIM (puking in mouth) that happened shortly after, but it never ceases to be funny. On the next lap, I suddenly see Dejay running next to my in his underwear. I decided to slap his booty.

Hilarious!

Beer feed. I love the heckler, “Looney! What are you doing back there?!” haha

Photo: Devon Balet
In hindsight, I should have given him the worst wedgie of his life! And then the crit was over!

Saturday, I worked the Ergon booth all day and Sunday morning was the Whiskey 50. Short report on that next.

I am now registered to race for Team USA at the ITU Cross Triathlon World Championship Race in Alabama on May 19.

May 19! That is just over 2 weeks away. I will be ready, though. I have been working hard and now I have time for one more hard training block before the big race. I will definitely be taking the swimming up a notch, too.

1500m swim, 31km mountain bike, 10km trail run.

YES!!!!!!!!!

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