Here is my race report from last weekends race... Hopefully photos to follow
This past weekend was the 24 hrs Round the Clock race at Riverside State Park in Spokane. I knew from the get go it was going to be a fun year. Last year I did it and won the solo women division, this year I was on a 5 person Coed team. I was pretty excited to race. The course is a 14 mile loop that has a few little hills in it, a couple of rock fields and some single track. It isn't the most technical course by any means, but it is fun. The weather prediction was rain and not too warm, so it could be a nasty 24 hours. We lucked out with only a few hours off and on of rain. My team consited of my husband Kris, my Transrockies partner Erika, her husband Doug, all around good guy Cully Todd, and myself. Kris took off the start and had an amazing first lap giving us a lead over the entire. field. It was sweet, if this was a sign of what was to come we were going to have a great race.
I had woken up Saturday morning with a sore throat and runny nose. I blammed it on allergies and put my race face on. I took my 2 favorite bikes down, the Ibis Mojo and Tranny. My first lap which was aroud 2pmI chose to ride the Tranny. Such a sweet bike, I had an awsome lap. The Ibis Tranny is a hard tail, so you would think you might bet beat up a lot. This isn't the case at all. In fact it climbs like no other, and rails the corners. I had a blast on it and had my fastest lap times. The second lap was around 7pm we had a good lead on 2nd place 20 min or so. I had another good lap, didn't feel as awsome as the first but was able to settle in a little for a good pace. I got up out of the saddle and hammered the few hills making up some time, and still was smooth in the single track. I think I was about 40 seconds slower than my first lap, not bad at all. My 3rd lap was around midnight, I decided to switch over to the Mojo and see how it rode. So I threw my lights on it. We had a small weather inversion and well it was now warmer than when I rode at 7pm. I didn't realize this until I was out on the bike, so I had to stop and take off my jacket. This just started my disfuntional lap. My light was broken (which I didn't know) it kept falling off so I kept having to stop to put it back on. My water bottle kept falling out of my pocket and well it just wasnt the best for me. However it was a total blast on the Mojo. There is one tricky decent and I am pretty sure I went down it faster in the middle of the night on the Mojo than I did during the day. I may not have had the best luck, but I had fun. Unfortunately, those allergies I was talking about earlier were not allergies. I took a quick rest and woke up 1 hour later with the worst sinus headache and was totally congested. I knew I was in for it. It was going to get ugly..
My last lap was supose to be around 5 am. I couldn't sleep, because of the cold and well I was having a hard time syching my self up for the lap. I managed to get my clothes on and get out there despite everything. I gave it my best, but man it was mentally hard. I kept thinking about how happy I was to not be doing it solo. I would go over the rock gardens and my head would just throb, not much fun. My nose kept running so my jersey was a snot rag, and my eyes kept watering. I managed to make it back and well, I was pretty sure I was done. My husband had said he would run 2 laps next time to cover for me. I am not one to usually back out, but I have a lot of races coming up so I gave him my last lap. In hopes that I wouldn't make my self any sicker. He did awsome and pulled some great laps which gave our team a great lead. We finished with 25 laps and in 1st place for the Co Ed 5 person team. I think we ended up 5 overall for the entire race, which is pretty awsome considering we had 2 women on the team. It is much different from doing it solo, but the legs still burn so it was still a big effort. Now I just have to get healthy for Sundays race at Farragut State Park. I want to thank to my sponsors Vanderkitten for the great kits, Ibis for bikes than rock, and Easton and Kenda for a flat free weekend!!
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