A whirlwind of a weekend for Georgia, Teal and I at the Whiskey 50 Off-Road Endurance Event in Prescott, Arizona. We all arrived at various times on thursday, my own arrival into Prescott was pretty late from the East Coast. I hooked up with the team on friday morning to pre-ride the beginning section of the 50 mile race course with Teal, and to my surprise Zac had a shiny new pair of race wheels for me; the new Mavic Crossmax SLR 29er’s. Wow are they light! So we set out to ride with the Stan’s No Tubes Women’s Team to chat with old friends and now new ones too! So we had a great ride, got all the nitty gritty details of the weekend at the pro meeting then prepared for the evening criterium. Unfortunately we didn’t have slick tires to race on but we looked at it as intimidation factor! And sure enough, Georgia showed the field they should be intimidated- winning 2 of the 3 primes and the race! Teal had a solid top 10 finish, I think 6th or 7th, and I pulled up the rear around 10th. I had a terrible start, didn’t get off the line fast enough and got boxed into the sharp right hand corner just 20 yds off the start line. So I buried myself playing catch up through the whole race- averaging a heart rate of 173- Ouch! The course was tough with some nasty hill climbing, fast descending and hard cornering. During the race I couldn’t help but ask myself “why am I killing myself, this race doesn’t mean anything unless you finish in the top 5- save yourself for sunday!” But I just couldn’t turn off the competitive switch; when I see someone in front of me there is a target on their back! I guess that’s what makes me race in the first place!
On Saturday, the 3 of us rode about 20 miles: the beginning and the last single track section which included a highly talked about descent and “cramp hill.” After riding we hung out at the expo socializing with the crowd, taking pictures with fans, etc. while Zac took care of our race machines. We had a team meeting to plan our feeding strategies, etc and were ready to race!
Sunday morning- the big show…we all met to prepare our bottles for Zac then went for a spin to get the legs a little warm before lining up at the start. With Georgia’s Crit win she was called up to the line first with the other top 5 ladies and got some serious cheers from the crowd as one of the race favorites. I got goosebumps because it is still a little surreal to me that I was wearing the same jersey as the race favorite! I also had the pre-race nerves not because I was a potential race winner, but because I knew the pain I was about to put my body through for the next 3+ hours! The women’s race had a record number of participants, almost 40 women all hoping to take home a piece of the $15,000 prize purse! We took off and the group rode together for the first few miles of pavement. Just before the road turned to dirt there was a steep pitch and the front 5-10 women broke away. Teal and I hung in the middle pack and found some space to spread out as we hit the single track. It was a nasty climb and I think I was anaerobic for the first hour and a half of the race- my legs were full of lactic acid and climbing the steep waterbars and technical sections was extremely challenging. As I began the descent into “Skull Valley,” a 12 mile fire road to the turn around point I was joined by another woman from behind me and we worked together down the long road. We caught one woman in front of us, hit the turn-around where Zac met me with my fresh bottles and we began the 16 mile climb back up the dirt road. The three of us worked together for a while, caught 2 more as we made our way up and a while later I noticed I was riding alone. It was hot but I was feeling good, climbing in my comfortable aerobic, sub-threshold zone, eating and drinking and focusing on catching some more women. At the top of the climb a spectator told me I was in the top 10- I didn’t expect to finish that high up so I got exited and vowed to hold my position or move up. At the bottom of the rocky descent I got major chain suck and had to dismount to yank my chain free- big bummer because I knew the ladies behind me were descending fast and making up time! I continued on, hit cramp hill- and man did my legs cramp! I managed to keep pedaling, downed some Clif Shots while climbing and mentally tried to will the cramps to subside! By the top I had a woman ahead of me in sight and rode aggressively in an effort to catch her. I powered through the last technical section with a couple of creek crossings and rock gardens which was the last of the single track before hitting the road for a fast 4 mile drag race to the finish. Unfortunately I double flatted on the rocks and was forced to stop a couple times to deal with that mess- so 2 tubes and 4 big airs later I was back on the bike pedaling frantically to the finish. So needless to say I lost my top 10 spot, and ended in a sprint finish settling for 19th place.
Immediately upon finishing I was frustrated, disappointed and a little angry about the flats costing me the top 10. But at the same time I was extremely pleased with my efforts up to that point and gained confidence in knowing I was fit enough to finish among the top 10. So I’m using it as a learning experience for where my fitness and riding skills need to improve, mountain bike race strategy and moving forward. My next race will be the ITU Cross Triathlon World Championship/Xterra Southeast Championship in Pelham, Alabama on May 19th.
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