Lucky 13

I finished 13th today on a very difficult course. It rained last night so the course was muddy but even without that it would have been hard. There really weren't any places to rest. Off camber turns followed by steep short grinds up followed by long slow mud sections. The only rest was the 2 seconds it took to ride through the horse barn which was followed very quickly by a sharp off camber turn into a log step run up.

The women's field was stacked with some great riders including a member of the Canadian Cross team last year, 8th at US Nats last year and some other strong riders. I didn't have the best start ever but I tried to stay on the wheels of some of the gals. However, within the first lap I was tailing off the back of the pack. However, I tried to just ride my best possible race. The 40 minutes basically passed in a blur of intense suffering. I'm not the most powerful rider so the steep uphills were really hurting. However, I challenged myself to ride them and not get off and run and except one time on the steepest hill I did that. And my knee doesn't feel too bad for it tonight.

Why the title "lucky 13" . . . I was 13th out of 13 but I don't feel bad about that. I gave it the best I had today. Unfortunately the other 12 women did the same and their best was better than mine. It works out like that sometimes. Tomorrow's another day of racing and I'm going to give it my best again. Should be interesting as it started raining again this evening so it should be a mudfest. I liked the mud except for on a couple of the off camber sections that were a bit crazy.

Dave killed it today! He raced the 35+ race on his mtn bike without even changing his tires to his narrow cross tires. Yet he was flying . . . he was 4th in his race and brought home the cash!!!! He is on fire right now.