Well, I came back for more suffering! Finally work/life allowed for me to make it out to another race, and dammit, I am determined to make it to the last two races of the series! When I saw the course map I was pleased, as they’re easy trails that I am familiar with. I also have been feeling the most physically fit that I have been in forever, so I was very optimistic about this race!
I finished in 5th place out of 10 women, which I am actually very happy about! I feel sometimes that racing in the beginner’s category is all about sandbagging… you can be a person who has been biking for 10 years and be stupidly fast, but claim yourself as a “beginner” since it’s the first time racing. I’m not saying this is intentional sandbagging, just how I see it (and self-justify my results, haha). So to place in 5th when I’ve only been on a bike 3 months… yeah, I’ll take that!
My first lap was 14:53. Looking at the results, it seems that we all finished where we were in the first lap. What is funny about all of this is I swore during the whole race I was in 2nd place! I think I forgot I had seen more than one person passing me. But it did make for some damn good motivation. When I heard someone behind me I would kick it up a few notches, and I just flew on the downhills (and hey, I stayed on my bike this time, always a plus!). I actually lapped another women in my category. It was her first race, and she ended up DNF. I told her good job and to be proud anyway! Hell, most people don’t try a mountain bike race, so just attempting one is an accomplishment!
Overall, I finished in 30:45. I out sprinted a 14 year old boy in the end, just because I could. Beat him by 1 second, which was awesome! I am not sure of where that extra energy came from at the end… maybe just relief that it was almost over! My lungs felt like they were being ripped out, and I swore I was tasting blood. I’m sitting 7th in series points (out of 17), even though I have only done two races, which is neat.
In my usual Strava-obsessed fashion, I managed some new records on some segments!
1- Meadow Trail Climb 3:15 (my former: 3:52)
2- Campground Bypass 1:54 (my former: 2:18)
3- Ridge Trail South to North 1:45 (my former: 1:51)
4- Alder Trail Ridge to Pole Creek 0:45 (my former: 1:03)
5- Campground Hill Climb 1:21 (my former: 1:33)
I won 5 free yoga classes in the raffle. The perk to this is that I didn’t have to buy Matt and our friend, Eric, dinner since we had a bet going on that if I didn’t win a prize in the raffle, I would buy dinner. Other than that, I think a few saw me roll my eyes at this win. I wanted to win a cool jersey, or socks… or something useful. Sigh 😦 Yoga isn’t my thing… I have never done it, so I know I’m passing judgement for no reason. I think I am just too Type A for yoga. I don’t have any zen or calm in me! I might give it a try, though… can’t pass up free, and who knows, I might end up liking it!
Hopefully I’ll have a few new photos to post up soon… both Eric and Matt took some, along with some others there so hopefully they’ll be trickling in soon. Other than that… we’re off to Colorado Springs for the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb shenanigans through Sunday (no 50 mile charity bike race *sad face*), so I’ll be off the bike. Monday I’ll have to ride to get back into it, because next Tuesday is the last race of the series.
Heidi Rides Bikes 