Soldier Hollow - Mtn Bike Race #3

You would think the mud and rain would have made 5-Mile Pass my worst race yet. Wrongo bongo. Soldier Hollow was my worst race yet. In my opinion. It was a lot of climbing (1,100 feet of climbing) but that wasn't even as bad as I thought it would be. There were a lot of switch-backs going up a hillside and then.... you had to come down from the hill.... and you guessed it - on switch-backs. I probably would have tried more of them, but Wednesday night when I was pre-riding it during the Weekly Race Series race, there was a downhill switch-back that I totally wiped out on. It was bad. And I have some pretty good bruises from it.

So I lost a little of my mojo and especially when I saw that there were 10 more of those downhill switch-back turns that I'd have to ride through on the actual ICUP course that we didn't have to do on Wednesday night. The fact that they were downhill and switch-back, hairpin turns alone doesn't do it justice to explain how paralyzed I was .... the dirt on those turns was so loose! Dusty, fine, powdery dirt - the kind where your back tire will come out from underneath you. And then to make matters worse... about the time when I finally got to those downhill switch-backs was the time when all the Professionals and Experts were passing me. Oh brother! So I had to get out of their way.... I would just stand paralyzed on the side of the course looking down it to see if there was another one of those switch-backs and then I'd look up and see that there were like 10 people needing to pass me...get back on the bike... try to navigate the turn... get scared.... get off the bike just before I wipe out.... and then realize there are more people to pass me. That was, what felt like, an eternally-long and freaky portion of the race.

But! The silver lining on the cloud of this race? There definitely was one. The number 5 was the lucky number for the race (I don't remember them doing this at other races...) and so whoever came in 5th place could get some swag!! And guess who came in 5th place? Yup. Me. Out of 5 racers in my category - so I was dead last, but I was in the lucky 5th place! They had some really nice swag for us to choose from... fleeces, coats, shirts... I was really tempted by a black soft shell coat, but I decided on a nice brown long sleeved shirt by Kuhl. I decided I have plenty of coats. :)

And the good news is that I have only 1 more race that I am committed to do. It's on May 30th at Sundance and can I tell you how busy that day will be? Yeah. Race starts at 9:30 am and my category will start at 9:48 am - and the race is suppose to last about an hour... and then I have to run home, shower, and drive up to Orem in order to perform in my piano recital at 12:30. Whoa. Gonna be a busy morning.

P.S. In the picture, I am the 3rd person from the left - you can see the side of my head because I'm talking to the other racers.