Did I mention: I’m Ba-aack
😮 I competed in my first Mountain Bike Race since Comfort of January 2010.
It was AWESOME, it was fabulous.
It was very scary Sunday morning because I was light headed, sick to my stomach and dizzy all morning while I was getting ready, as I got over to Northshore, via my route, my symptoms were getting worse. I was nervous, of course, that I would be to ill to race. I was sad. I cried to my friend Jen about how sad I get when to feeling this way. It’s one thing if I’m sick from a virus or a bacteria, it’s another thing when I am subjected to these feelings without them being warranted. I know, these things are better said in another spot of my site, however, it was my first Mountain Bike Race and I really thought I was going to have to pull a DNS because of my reaction to drilling/fracing chemicals, and that, my friend, is due to the gold rush and greed of the Gas Companies to turn profit over PUBLIC SAFETY.
Thank you God for blowing Hilliard Site away from Race Site, that’s the only thing that saved my day.
I got to the site 2 hours before race start. I like time to do my thing, gather my thoughts, not be rushed, relax, visit, pee a lot, and most importantly extra time in case I get lost. I’ve never been to the Boy Scout Camp before. It was Cool. The weather was a bit chilly, my teeth were chattering the first time since I broke my jaw, that was kinda weird.
That 2 hours gave my body enough time to have all symptoms leave and the next thing I know, I was ready to roll.
Not fast on a 2 mile road start on a SS with a 33/18 gear ratio. I started the race in last place. Last place for the 3 lappers, last place for the 2 lappers, last place for the 1 lappers, and Thomas Mullins bless his heart, was there cheering everyone on, and even had motivational thoughts for the girl in last place, me.
I wasn’t too worried about my placement. I was signed up for 2 laps, the last time I did 2 laps I was running them, and it was a month ago to the day. Or close to. The last time I rode that much was Comfort, January of 2010.
My timing was good, my trail riding was good, I coasted a lot, I climbed a lot. I felt pretty good, even being in last place. The thing about being in last place is you can slowly start picking people off, which is exactly what I did.
The nice thing about being on SS on a 2 mile road start is you can’t go out too hard, all you can do is sit back, laugh, and pedal like hell, and coast back on the saddle and that’s exactly what I did.
My confidence on the trail was good. I was not scared, or sketched. Not until I got to the rock wall descent they built 2 years ago, that I have never ridden, even before I broke my jaw. When they first built it, it was too rough and too sketchy, and then, I didn’t ride that side forever, and then it was closed off, so I never got the chance. I about poohed my pants when I rode Th/F and saw that it was the route, I took the long route when I was out there and thought, you know what this race isn’t about speed, it’s about fitness and time in the saddle I’ll take the long route during the race too and I’ll get extra distance.
They wouldn’t let me.
I walked. I told them, “I’m not mentally ready” I wasn’t. But I did pause and watch 2 people who I passed pass me because I ‘wasn’t mentally ready’. And that my friend is my mantra the whole second lap. ‘I am mentally ready’. So second time through I rode it.
And you know what?
It was EZ.
Now there was a total bummer, after my shot of espresso, I had to pee so bad, I thought I was clear, and apparently, I wasn’t. So I hope my full moon wasn’t towards the nice trail steward on the crossing. How totally embarrassing! You know, it’s kinda weird how guys can just pee anywhere, like it’s no big deal, but heaven forbid if a girl has to take a squat. It’s embarrassing. And on my not so serious races, I pee whenever I want, it’s all about comfort, and for some reason I had a lot of comfort that day. I think, it was more my water levels and hormones. You know that other girlie thing we love some much called bloat.
First lap I came in right on schedule 1.5 hours to the T. I left transition at 1:37. So I took 7 minutes for comfort. I was hot on that trail, so I took off my wind vest. That was a serious project, after all this was not an ‘A’ race so I had just put the tube in my vest, instead of my jersey like I would for all serious races, and the presta valve got stuck in my mesh and I had to fish that off. Then, off came the half hat, the arm warmers, the knee warmers. I chose to take the half hat off instead of the toe warmers. Grabbed some water, my food, my espresso, yea, the one that made me have to pee, a lot.
My bike began bottoming out. I was on my 1999 Stumpjumper Pro converted to SS. The one that I can’t use the rear brake because it sounds like a dying elephant. It’s more embarrassing to use my rear brake then it is to get busted full moon in the middle of the trail. (My dear friend, and phenomenal athlete, world class cross country skier, literally won the Berkie one year, told me never to pee off the trail because she had a friend who decided to drop too low into some poison oak. Since that day, I never have. Too many risks.
I’m not sure why I obsessed about talking about pee tonight.
That was fun, that was damn fun. I love racing my bike. That was perfect. I knew I could struggle through 2 laps. Pam Jackson was so funny, she was calling me a ‘sandbagger’ when she saw I was only doing 2 laps. She did awesome with her 3. I am in no shape to do 3 right now.
I promise, I’m working on it.
My back did hurt a little bit, my butt didn’t start hurting until near the end. Running does not keep your butt strong for the saddle. I came up on Jen, and my dear friend Deanna. It was funny, Jen thought I was in front of her. (she didn’t know, like I did, that I was in last place for almost the whole race. I asked for the pass. Deanna said she was nervous. I didn’t understand why. I was worried that maybe she had crashed. I think, her being nervous set the tune for me clipping her handle bars. I felt like pooh that I did, I kept asking if she was OK, it didn’t knock her over, but I do hate that when people hit my handle bars. I just think collectively we were both a little nervous. Good thing we both going slow, or that could have been a situation. The rough part of it is, I think, we both trying so hard our attention pools shrunk and boom. It wasn’t boom, it was clip.
But across I came. 2nd lap 1:30. I felt it was faster, I did stop to check my phone to see if the call coming in was in EMG with the monkeys and the babysitter. The weird part was I thought it was faster. Oh, I guess it was actually. It was 1:23, minus the laddie, dah I had in transitions.
Today I went to the pool, had a BLAST!!!!! Did my own workout, that was so awesome, I love doing that. I was pretty tired, the legs were. Actually come to think of it my upper body was a little sore too. But I could pull no problem, and did not do any kick drills what so ever. I did 200 swim/200 breast/200 back/skulls, fingertip drag/6 count/4counts/2 counts, 1 arm drills, 1 arm butterfly…tons, it was awesome and I love being creative.