Standing in line to pick up my packet and number, I perused the crowd to see what other female cyclists were there. Other than my two friends who were riding in the beginner race, I didn’t see a single other woman. I got to the front and they told me I was the only female racing in the sport division. I was a bit disappointed to not have any competition. A few minutes later I look up at the line and see this chick totally decked out in her Trek racing gear and accompanying Trek bike. She totally looked the part and I was intimidated! I decided rather than gawking from a distance that I’d introduce myself, so I walked up and said “Hi, I’m the competition!” After talking, I later found out that she was racing expert, not sport. I have to say I was a bit relieved but also bummed at the same time. I did find out later that there was one other woman racing in the sport category, so that gave me some incentive, but mainly I wanted to ride the race as fast as I could. My goal was to finish the race in under 2 hours.
As we were standing around at the pre-race meeting, I heard a pssshhht coming from Paul’s bike; he got a flat just standing there! What luck. He ran over to the tent and changed his tube in record time, and minutes later we were both standing at the starting line. 3, 2, 1, we’re off!
Immediately we both took off and headed out toward the trail. We were on the road for a short stretch, about 25 meters, and I happened to glance down at my heart rate – 170 – just 15 beats below threshold and we had just started! As we entered the single track I told Paul good luck, I knew there was no way I’d be able to stay on his wheel and didn’t want him to hold anything back.
The first 5 miles of the trail is extremely technical. I discovered this, thankfully, during the pre-ride. Rather than taking my time though over the obstacles, as I had done during the pre-ride, I continued to go as fast as I could, riding recklessly and falling often. I soon realized that while I wanted to go fast, it was much slower and painful to fall and have to pick myself back up, click back in, and get going again. I was losing a lot of time this way. So, I decided to take it a little easier over the hard stuff and go fast when I felt more comfortable. It wasn’t long before I came up to Paul on the trail changing his tire; I felt so bad for him! On one hand I wanted to stop and see if I could help in any way but on the other hand it was a race and I knew he’d want me to keep going. He said he was ok and I flew past, hoping he would catch me soon. Shortly after that I came up to a bridge leading over a mud bog. I didn’t recall having any issues with this bridge during the pre-ride. With no one in front or behind me, I came barreling down the hill at the bridge but as soon as my tire hit, it slid from underneath me, throwing me into the bog below! The entire right side of my body was covered in mud; sloppy, stinky, disgusting mud! I love mountain biking and enjoy getting dirty when I ride but this was like nothing I’d experienced before. Fortunately I had no time to think about how disgusting I was and just looked forward to that first stream crossing so I could rinse some of the slop off my body.
Before I knew it, I had gone across the first stream crossing and came out to the road where the beginner course ended. Only 10 miles to go! I looked down at my watch to see how long it had taken me but my stopwatch had stopped after 13 minutes. Oh well, should have attached it to my handlebars. Heart rate in the 180’s for the first 5 miles; I wonder how long I could keep this up? I started in on the first climb up an access road, about ½ mile climb. This is where I started making up time and gaining on riders. My strength is in the hills and in endurance and boy, did it feel good to be passing the guys! I passed a few riders on the hill and more as I rode along. I must have passed 10-15 guys during the course of the race, and not a single one of them passed me again! This was my favorite part of the race and kept me going strong. As I came upon a hill I would see a rider in the distance, attack the climb, and set my sights on passing him.
Not once during the race did I let up. I remember as I passed two guys standing on the side of the trail, they were commenting on how most guys start out strong and die down half way through because they can’t keep the pace they set, “except for her!” they said, as I passed them! I am proud of my performance and how strong I rode. I didn’t walk down a single hill, which is a great achievement for me – there were some sketchy descents. Yes, there were some technical sections that I had to push my bike through, but I ran, rather than walked. And at the end even though I had to push my bike up many sections of that last killer climb, I still kept getting back on and riding strong to the end and sprinting to the finish.
Race Stats:
Standing – 1st overall women’s sport division
Course Length – 14.9 miles
Finish Time – 1:58:30 (yea!)
Heart Rate - Don’t know because my watch stopped 13 minutes in, but every time I looked down it was at or near threshold, in the 180’s and sometimes 190’s.\
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