First Race - St. George

I decided to race this weekend and I'm so glad I did, despite being sick, low on energy, and not exercising for the past couple weeks. The weather was beautiful. The social scene was fun - to gab with all my biking friends and feel the energy of a new season starting. I just love the energy at a race!

Kendra, Heather, and I pre-rode the course Friday afternoon and it really kicked my trash. I felt really light-headed after making it up and out of the first wash with a heart rate at 197. But it was my first time on my mountain bike since I think August and then not too mention all of the other reasons listed in the paragraph above. So we took our time and enjoyed the weather and the ride.

But then I feel pretty good about the race! My pace was about the same as when I was pre-riding, but I didn't stop at all. I guess I have just enough competition/adrenaline in me to do that because I passed a girl in my category just as we were coming out of the first wash. I was able to stay on my bike and do the technical stuff while she was walking it and then I wanted to and was able to stay ahead of her for the rest of the race. So I felt great! That was a vast improvement from the 24 hours before.

So I got 10th place out of 12. For some reason I thought there was 16 in my class, but 12 is still huge! I'm used to racing with only 5 or 6 other women in my category.  Here is a pic with me and some of my teammates (from left to right: Heather, Dorothy, Gayle, and me).