Ya Win Some... and Some Ya Don't

That's right.

I was gonna title the post "You win some and you lose some." And for about 48 hours after the race I felt like a loser, but placing 3rd at a venue that has a lot of climbing, 6 months after surgery with a left leg functioning less than 40% isn't really losing. Besides, anyone even going out there in 105 degree heat, and muddy conditions wasn't a loser even if they were last place.

So that's how it ended: I placed third behind Nikki D and Amanda Mckay.

I spent the remainder of Saturday evening after the race trying to reason just how and why that happened. I thought my power was improving and I felt prepared for this venue. Where did I possibly go wrong? Well, I didn't really go wrong. Some days people are just better than you, and some gals are just better built for certain races than me. Tough pill to swallow- but its the bitter truth. The top two gals were lightweights. Mountain goats. Four stroke engines... and well... I'm not. I'm not a climber, I'll never be a goat, and I'm more like a 2 stroke engine. Which leads to the other problem I had that day. I over heated my engine. I refused to admit to myself that the fact that I had goose bumps and lack of sweating 30 minutes into the race may have played a factor in my overall performance. Even though I recognized it in the race and intentionally pulled back on my pace, I forgot all that information in the end. If anyone has ever ridden a 2 stoke dirt bike (which I did for many years) you know they don't do so well grunting around doing sustained hill climbs in the woods. They do great in short, punchy situations. Try and run the motor too fast for too long and you'll blow the engine (which I have also done).

(This how I felt: burrrrieeed! In the pain cave)

I knew I either had to back down on the 2nd ascent of the race and let Amanda pass me, or blow up completely and DNF. I choose to back down. By the time I backed off I was almost gone, but I kept fighting the fight, which I am now proud of, and hung in there. I spent the next 45 minutes trying to recover. After getting a bottle hand up from teammate Brien Fields on lap 2 of 2, I started to come around in the next 10 minutes and actually put the remainder of the 2 hour race together. But as I'm sure you can do the math. I spent too much time blowing up and recovering in comparison to actually racing... some days you just struggle. I struggled, but I was happy to rally and hang on for 3rd and enjoy the last downhill section.

Adding injury to insult, the super sweet pine section was for some reason rerouted through a crappy, muddy, unused fire road. This was bad for me since it was covered in poison ivy. Being that I'm super sensitive to the stuff, the oils from it being raced on all day became inhaled by me and over the next couple days I formed a full blown internal inflammatory process. That means swollen eyes, wheezing, fatigue, blistered face lips, and a weight gain of about 6 pounds from swelling. Nice! Guess I maybe deserved that for beating up on myself mentally... but the rest of the sweet trails made up for it.

I spent the remainder of the weekend being mad at myself for not doing better. I now wish I wouldn't have done that. In all honesty, I did the best I could and gave 100% of what I had that day. That's all I can ask of myself. I'm sure the Colts didn't think they were losers after scoring a loss near the end of their perfect season before the playoffs. I bet they learned from their loss and started moving on to the next game... Matter of fact, I almost sure they did. If history proves right, they finished the year pretty good. Really good!

I plan on doing the same.

I fought the good fight.

I finished the race.

I kept the faith.

I thank God for giving me the faith and opportunity to do all of the above!