firecracker!

yep - it's that time of year again. This was the only XC race on the schedule this year.

And man - did time sneak up on me.

the prep
I have been doing long rides but not actually 'training' or 'riding at altitude' or 'doing climbing repeats' to get my climbing legs in shape. For the time being i just wanted to ride my bike and enjoy myself. I have been watching my weight and I lightened up my bike - i was hoping my lack of actual training would somehow translate into a faster lap time than last year.

heh - a girl can dream, eh?

Ted started getting ready for the race 6 weeks ago by pounding out the miles on the mtn bike and doing Ride The Rockies. During our pre-ride last week he was looking really strong.

ready-set-go

This is the race promoter - Jeff.

This guy is so awesome - he puts on a fantastic race (last week he was out w/a chainsaw cutting trees off the course) - I don't think there is a race promoter that can top him.

Ted was doing the first lap as he's the stronger rider and would be able to handle the congestion on the trail better than I could.

here we are at the start -
my buddy Ted
he's an awesome friend

Ted started off in the parade and that meant i had about 2.5 hours to hang around and wait.

Ted crossing the road and heading down Moonstone

I saw Ted coming down the switchbacks and had him crossing the finish line at 1:43pm - supposedly they start the timer for the Teams at 11:07 so that meant he was running a 2:36 lap time. But there is a bit of confusion on our part when they start the timer because when they added up our lap times it seemed like they timed Ted's lap at 2:43. I guess it's all relative since all teams start at the same time but for personal reasons it would be nice to have actual 'racing time'.

Ted at the finish

Ted and family (dad, zoe, wife lynnette)

lap 2
I hit Baker's Tank in 39:30 (last year I hit bakers at 39:42) and just kept on cranking. I was pretty much exactly on track for my time from last year. For all my known milestones the times between last year and this year(ie. SallyBerber descent 2008/3:46 vs 2009 3:42 - road To French Gulch climb 2008 9:37 vs 2009 9:32) were within seconds apart.

The section that replaced 'nightmare' looks to have added .449 (~half a mile) to the course and this cost me 2 minutes. There was a line of 10 guys ahead of me and 10 guys behind me in this section so there is no pointing in trying to pass.

I got rained on here and there but lucky it was only uncomfortable but not unbearable. I hit the French Gulch climb just after rain had dumped on that section. Usually I ride past the running creek but the rocks were so slippery everyone had to walk this section - it wasn't worth the energy expenditure to try to ride. I also ran out of water on this climb but I don't think it impacted me at all - the weather was cool and i had just eaten so I felt i was good until the next aid station 6 miles away. I found out later I lost 2 minutes on this climb(i think it was the part that I walked on this section that cost me the 2minutes not running out of water) - never to make them up again. :(

The rest of the lap was uneventful - somewhere on the last half of the course I was passed by about 3 maverick class women and they looked fantastic powering through the singletrack and climbs. It's so cool to see so many strong women that can RIDE!

I middle ringed it up Sally Berger knowing i probably would be a tad bit slower than last year and as I was going up I saw my friend, Sasha Milhous coming down. I looked at my bike computer and saw the time was 4:18. - she was ~3 minutes away from Aid station 2.(the course director set a cut off time for all racers to be past Aid #2 by 4:15) I thought 'uh-oh - I wonder if they will let her slide'. (they didn't - they didn't let her continue and sent her down the road back to town. :(


I kept on cranking and finally reached the top of Sally Berger and put it in the big ring and cranked. I ran into a little bit of traffic on Barney Ford but the guys that heard me coming made room when I asked to pass. 2 different guys passed me on the road between Barney and Moonstone and I rode as fast as I could to the finish. I could hear someone behind me when descending the switchbacks to Carter Park but he wasn't gaining any ground on me.

me on one of the last berms before the finish

i sprinted to the finish... 4 minutes slower than last year. :(

me finishing

aftermath
The time for our team was 5:45.01 (3(!) seconds faster than last years time of 5:45.04. Ted made up for the 4 minutes i lost. It was good enough for 6th place. Not to shabby considering last year we finished in 12th place with that time. I guess results depends on who shows up.

All-in-all I feel good about the race - looking back there are probably a couple of things I could have done better here and there. Sometimes if I caught up on someone I didn't pass immediately cause it seems like they are going my pace but then when I finally did pass them they didn't keep up. Since I haven't really done much XC racing the last 1.5 years I think the mentality to pass someone immediately is something I forgot. oops! Also I got to get the way I feed myself more organized - everytime I wanted to eat something it seemed I really slowed down to get something out of my jersey pocket.
friends and family
The great thing about this race is I get to see all my mtn biking friends in one place. Here a few stories.

pro girls lining up -
Eszter and Sonya with their game faces on

pro girls start

SingleSpeed Badass - Jessica
Look at those legs

Jessica took 1st(!) place in the SS cat - woot!

Tom at the start -
rubbing his belly
Tom bonked terribly on the 2nd lap but hung tough to beat the cut-off time and finish 12th!

Melanie had a smoking fast of 2:22. dang that girl just keeps getting better. I think she should go Pro. :)

Sasha as mentioned previously DNFed but said she got a good workout in.

Ward got 5th

Dave and I stayed for most of the awards and he drove my tired butt home. Dave looked out for me all day long - I can't say how much I appreciate him. :)