WP Races #3 and #4

Saturday: Valley Point to Point

Most of my team headed up Friday night to stay at Michelle’s family’s home in Frasier (thanks Michelle!). We relaxed, chatted and enjoyed looking at a magazine of child starts, then and now. It made me feel old… Who knew that Mark from Home Improvement was going to someday make cheese???

The next morning we all got up and had a yummy egg sandwich that Chris made everyone, before heading over to the resort. Once the bikes were ready to go, Marni took me on a long warm up ride. I have never done a long warm-up before, I was always afraid it would make me tired before the race even started. I wasn’t sure if it was going to help me, or hurt me, but I went along anyways.

We went to the start line with enough time to get in front, although I am not sure why… They sent us off, and I took off up the hill. Too fast. I have seen so many people take off too hard and burn out quick, shaking my head at them. Well, that day I was one of them, and I did shake my head at myself. I burnt out before the single track, feeling like I was going to puke on the side, not sure if there was anyway I could continue. I was mad at myself, and told myself there was no way I was going to quit because of my stupidity, doing something that I knew not to.

Another girl and I were pushing hard to fight for the lead when the single track came. She beat me to it, which actually wasn’t too bad, we were about the same speed. Not too long into the downhill we came across a girl who had wiped out around one of the corners. A guy had stopped for her, we asked if she was ok and kept going when she said she was. Eventually I knew I could ride faster than this girl, so I started to work on a strategy to pass her. She wasn’t having any of that, and refused to let me by. During a flatter section I saw her start to wobble, and lose control. I knew what was happening, and just watched as her back tire went flat. I flew past her, not feeling too bad at all.

Once the uphill started again, I felt the pain from the long warm up and stupidly fast start. My energy was already gone, and I started to curse myself. It was at this point that my mind started getting to me, I was getting frustrated, and I was mad at myself for feeling like I did. I tried really hard to stop those thoughts, and just work on enjoying the ride, which worked for a little while. I got to the top of the hill where originally we were supposed to go right and cross the river, but the re-routed it since the river was running too high. I was overheating by this point and really wished we were going through the river. There was a nice long downhill on a road where I caught another girl, so my spirits started to lift a little. But then we turned onto D4 where more climbing started. My bike was fighting with me, not shifting when I wanted it to, and then shifting when I didn’t want it too. Frustration sank in again, and I was having a hard time concentrating. I was still feeling like crap, still no energy, and I could not focus. More than once I went to shift down to make it up a steeper section, but ended up shifting into a harder gear instead, so I ended up having to walk those sections. Frustration got worse at this point. When I turned around at one point I saw Marni coming up the hill. She looked strong and I knew it was only a matter of time before she passed me. I was looking forward to her catching up, I thought some chatting with her would lift my spirits. I was on the verge of throwing my bike off the trail and sitting on a stump crying.

Eventually I made it to the turnoff onto WTM, a very steep lose downhill. It was fun, but still hard to navigate. The trail continued to rollercoaster a bit through the forest, the ups hurt, the downs were a little better. I saw another girl on the side of the trail trying to fix a flat. I could tell she was frustrated, she started to smash her tire on the ground. I was about to tell her I know how she feels, but thought that would be inappropriate since I was still riding…

I eventually popped out onto a road where a guy said only 4.5 miles. Only. Ugh. I kept going though, knowing the end was soon. It didn’t seem like it was too long after that I came across another person who said it was only about another mile. Sweet!! Those last 3.5 miles went super fast! I was starting to ride faster, excited to finish. It was a while later that I saw the sign saying 1 mile to go… Hadn’t I already gone a mile?? I kept pedaling along, but more frustration came during this last section. I was trying to go fast but there were so many baby heads it was hard to pick a good line. Eventually I started to see cars and people, and then heard my teammates cheering for me. I was about done! Thank god!

If this were my first race, I would have probably quit, never wanting to race again. I did not enjoy myself, I let my mind take over, and instead of having fun just being on my bike, I took everything too seriously, and was really hard on myself. I thought about it for a while afterwards, how to take this experience and learn from it. I was even debating writing about it, thinking it might be better to just forget about it and move on. I think I need to work on just enjoying the ride, whether it is a casual ride, or a race.

Sunday: Super D

I took my own advice for this race, before really thinking about it, and decided to just have fun on this course. It was the Super D, and I will admit, I was kind of scared doing a downhill race. We got there early so we could pre-ride the course and see what we were up against. We had to take the lift up, which was one of the biggest challenges of the day! Marni and I went to get on, thinking the operator was going to put our bikes on for us. He informed us that we were responsible for loading our own bikes. Uh, ok, and how do we do this??? Marni and I did our best, and through much laughter and yelps we managed to load our bikes on before the chair took off with the bikes hanging off. I think the lift operator did it on purpose to get a kick out of us. He didn’t even slow down the lift for us!

Mel, Erik and Scott met us at the top, and we all took off on our pre-ride. Some of the crew thought we looked pretty cool in our kits, and all sporting squeaky toys. I am sure they were wondering what all of us were thinking, about to do a downhill race.

The course was fun, very technical in spots with large rocks to go over, lose sand and roots sticking out. There are a few uphills that we all felt after Saturday’s race. When we got to the bottom we waited for Chris to come down. He rode his fully rigid SS. Ouch is all I can say. He finished well, coming in 3^rd.

It was then time for Marni, Mel and I to head to the top, so we headed to the dreadful chair lift. There was a different operator this time, and he was nice enough to slow down the lift so we could all get our bikes on.

We watched Scott take off in the group before us, and soon all that were left were the women. 11 total between Beginner and Sport. We had about 15 minutes before we were to head off, so we all started chatting, being silly girls. We found out how old everyone was so we knew who our competition was. It turned out there wasn’t much for anyone! I think all 11 of us got on the podium. Melissa was the only one in her group, so she automatically got 1^st, and it was between me and Marni for our group. It made the start more fun, knowing we could all just have fun in this race.

The race started Le Mans style where we staged our bikes about 100 feet up the road which we had to run to. Once they sent us off I got to my bike pretty quick, but for some reason could not get on it! I was struggling so hard to get my foot even on the pedal. Melissa was right beside me, and I think she was having the same problem because she wasn’t moving any faster and we could not stop laughing. We were pretty much at the back of the pack by the time we got on our bikes. No worries, though. I caught up to quite a few of the girls up the hill and rode with the front of the pack for a while. They lost me pretty quick once the single track started. They always stayed in sight, but I never caught them, not that I was trying to. I ended up right in the middle of the fast girls and the slower ones, so there was no one around me for the whole race. I had a blast. I was cruising down, singing along to my music, just having fun. This is what racing should feel like.

I came upon the rocky section, so I downshifted and was able to ride right over them. It flattened out for a while so I was about to push harder when all of a sudden my front tire turned and I went flying off my bike, sprawled out across the trail. I have no idea what happened, there were no rocks or roots to grab my tire. I got up, found I had no severe injuries, got back on the bike and continued down. I never saw the fast group after that. I came to the final switchbacks, bummed that the ride was about over. I finished in about 27 minutes, good for 1^st place. J A few minutes later we saw Marni and Melissa coming down the switchbacks. Mel good for 1^st, Marni for 2^nd. Turned out Scott got 2^nd in his class, so it was a day of success. It was a lot of fun to stand on the podium beside Marni, and I am sure that wont be the last, she has gotten super fast I am struggling to stay ahead of her! Erik pulled in a great time, but he was in a large class. Brett did great also, and would have had a great time if he didn’t crash so bad.

I am really glad this race followed so closely to Saturday’s. I got my spirit back, and I am looking forward to racing in 2 weeks. Go Team!