Iceman Cometh and my Season Complete!
With over 4,600 athletes, this is the largest race I've ever competed in. Couldn't be happier with finishing the 27 miles in 1:43, only 6 mins off first place, Olympian, Chloe Woodruff. Came in 9th out of over 400 women. I was in wave 57, the last wave of the day, the Pro/Cat 1 division of only 21 girls. I was excited and nervous as the announcer started calling off the names and accolades of a few of the girls, Olympians, World Champions, National Champions and I thought, this is so cool lining up with some of the fastest ladies in the world, time to find out what I was really made of. The Goal was Top 10 to make the money.
For the first several miles the pace was steady, girls jockying for position, playing it safe, I was in the middle of the pack. A girl spilled it in a sand pit, taking out several others just in front of me, I couldn't squeeze past as the train was going by in the other lane. Waited for the mess to clean up and put an effort in to catch back to the lead pack. Was sitting in 9th position for the first 7 miles of firelanes, feeling good. Was stoked when we entered the first section of single track, usually where I get to relax. Unfortunately the girl who ended up taking 2nd was just in front of me in 8th position and her handling skills were not on par with the leaders. The rest of them pulled away and when we popped out there was a gap. She was so powerful that was able to catch up easy while I had to exert a tremendous amount of effort to get there. This happened a few times, single track, double track catch up. Legs were fatigued and I wasn't able to recover in the draft in time for the set of hills that emergerged. Lost them at mile 9.
Next 4 miles I'm completely alone, it's a struggle holding pace with no help, I was bumming pretty hard. Then I passed Bill Street and Dallas on the side of the trail, Bill had a mechanical they were trying to fix. I prayed that they would catch back up to me before the 2nd wave of girls did. Sure enough they did and had another girl with them. So now I'm rolling again, recovering from the earlier lonely miles, sitting in 10th. Bill and Dallas worked together trading off the lead and I was able to hold the fast pace. We started another section of single track, I made sure I was in front of the girl, we put a gap on her in that section. If the boys and I could maintain 20mph + in the fire lanes, I knew she wouldn't be able to catch. The last 3 miles I wanted to pin it but Bill coached me to calm down, ride solid, not get crazy as there were a few good hills left to save energy for.
There are always things you are going to wish you had done differently, strategies, luck, if onlys but I am so happy with how it all turned out in the end, thanks to a little help from my friends. Looking forward to a couple months off and fat biking for fun. This marks the end of my first full year of training year round and "making a go of it." I'll be back, ready to attack in 2017 so watch out!
With over 4,600 athletes, this is the largest race I've ever competed in. Couldn't be happier with finishing the 27 miles in 1:43, only 6 mins off first place, Olympian, Chloe Woodruff. Came in 9th out of over 400 women. I was in wave 57, the last wave of the day, the Pro/Cat 1 division of only 21 girls. I was excited and nervous as the announcer started calling off the names and accolades of a few of the girls, Olympians, World Champions, National Champions and I thought, this is so cool lining up with some of the fastest ladies in the world, time to find out what I was really made of. The Goal was Top 10 to make the money.
For the first several miles the pace was steady, girls jockying for position, playing it safe, I was in the middle of the pack. A girl spilled it in a sand pit, taking out several others just in front of me, I couldn't squeeze past as the train was going by in the other lane. Waited for the mess to clean up and put an effort in to catch back to the lead pack. Was sitting in 9th position for the first 7 miles of firelanes, feeling good. Was stoked when we entered the first section of single track, usually where I get to relax. Unfortunately the girl who ended up taking 2nd was just in front of me in 8th position and her handling skills were not on par with the leaders. The rest of them pulled away and when we popped out there was a gap. She was so powerful that was able to catch up easy while I had to exert a tremendous amount of effort to get there. This happened a few times, single track, double track catch up. Legs were fatigued and I wasn't able to recover in the draft in time for the set of hills that emergerged. Lost them at mile 9.
Next 4 miles I'm completely alone, it's a struggle holding pace with no help, I was bumming pretty hard. Then I passed Bill Street and Dallas on the side of the trail, Bill had a mechanical they were trying to fix. I prayed that they would catch back up to me before the 2nd wave of girls did. Sure enough they did and had another girl with them. So now I'm rolling again, recovering from the earlier lonely miles, sitting in 10th. Bill and Dallas worked together trading off the lead and I was able to hold the fast pace. We started another section of single track, I made sure I was in front of the girl, we put a gap on her in that section. If the boys and I could maintain 20mph + in the fire lanes, I knew she wouldn't be able to catch. The last 3 miles I wanted to pin it but Bill coached me to calm down, ride solid, not get crazy as there were a few good hills left to save energy for.
There are always things you are going to wish you had done differently, strategies, luck, if onlys but I am so happy with how it all turned out in the end, thanks to a little help from my friends. Looking forward to a couple months off and fat biking for fun. This marks the end of my first full year of training year round and "making a go of it." I'll be back, ready to attack in 2017 so watch out!
