UFD put on another great MTN bike race at Castlewood today. I was a little nervous going into this race even though I would only be racing 3hrs. #1-this is my backyard, #2-this was a "C" race for me and not peaking for it, and #3-HEAT! However, I was excited to see 7 women racing Marathon this year! I remember 2 years ago being the only woman racing Marathon at Castlewood. I also decided to break out the 1x9 geared bike and hang the singlespeed up for this one. I figured I needed to conserve the legs if I was going to climb Lone Wolf 5 times and be able to crank out the flat sections. Stephanie had nervous butterflies like me so I knew she was looking for a win. I also knew Kerri, Gabrielle, and Jamie would be out there pushing it too.Gun went off and I pushed right from the start so I could be the first one up the Lone Wolf 
monster hill. As you can see from the picture, there is not a lot of room for riders up it due to the huge crack up the middle and loose gravel. Since I am a better climber than descender, Stephanie and Kerri caught me on the 1st descent after the climb. That's ok. It's a long race in the heat and I had a stragety. I could see the 2 ladies in front of me on the 1st lap until a couple of guys crashed in front of me on Roller Coaster. I rode up into the woods around them and sped it up a bit to catch up. Awesome, I could see Stephanie and Kerri coming off the 1st lap in the grassy field section.
monster hill. As you can see from the picture, there is not a lot of room for riders up it due to the huge crack up the middle and loose gravel. Since I am a better climber than descender, Stephanie and Kerri caught me on the 1st descent after the climb. That's ok. It's a long race in the heat and I had a stragety. I could see the 2 ladies in front of me on the 1st lap until a couple of guys crashed in front of me on Roller Coaster. I rode up into the woods around them and sped it up a bit to catch up. Awesome, I could see Stephanie and Kerri coming off the 1st lap in the grassy field section. On the 2nd climb up Lone Wolf, I saw Stephanie walking it. Ok...either she is tired or conserving. I kept on trucking with the plan to settle in with a steady p
ace for 2nd and 3rd lap. I wanted to squeeze 5 laps in for the 3hr race so I knew what lap times I had to pull in order to achieve this based on my practice lap times. I was able to catch up to Kerri on the climb up Love trail and made the pass. I kept seeing Stephanie on the grassy field section so it was time to close the gap. 4th lap plan was to bump up the pace and go all out for the 5th lap. Race volunteers were telling me she was 30 sec to 1.5 min in front of me. Dang it...where is she? I knew she was probably putting the hammer down. And down I went! I completely lost traction going around the turn too fast at top of Love onto Grotpeter on the loose gravel. Dang it! Not 20 sec later, team mate, Carl Hoffman did the exact same thing! We both shook our heads and took off. Last lap, I went all out but, just couldn't catch her. Ended up placing 2nd out of 7 and very happy with my results. It was fun to really push myself and I had a great time. I think we had a record number of women racing this year in different categories. So awesome!
ace for 2nd and 3rd lap. I wanted to squeeze 5 laps in for the 3hr race so I knew what lap times I had to pull in order to achieve this based on my practice lap times. I was able to catch up to Kerri on the climb up Love trail and made the pass. I kept seeing Stephanie on the grassy field section so it was time to close the gap. 4th lap plan was to bump up the pace and go all out for the 5th lap. Race volunteers were telling me she was 30 sec to 1.5 min in front of me. Dang it...where is she? I knew she was probably putting the hammer down. And down I went! I completely lost traction going around the turn too fast at top of Love onto Grotpeter on the loose gravel. Dang it! Not 20 sec later, team mate, Carl Hoffman did the exact same thing! We both shook our heads and took off. Last lap, I went all out but, just couldn't catch her. Ended up placing 2nd out of 7 and very happy with my results. It was fun to really push myself and I had a great time. I think we had a record number of women racing this year in different categories. So awesome!
This summer, I am continuing to build my base miles to peak in the fall for my big 6 and 12hr races. I am doing the dirt crits and local races for fun this month. I started weights back up 3 weeks ago too so feeling it in the legs a little but, will hopefully pay off in the Fall.
