Pace Bend TMBRA Race- Austin, Texas 03/28/2010
First thing just let me say that this part of Texas is absolutely breathtaking. The hills, the views, the weather, the water….. It’s got a little bit of everything! We were lucky enough to stay with a friend right off Lake Travis in a cute lake house. We arrived on Friday night just in time for sunset. The evening brought some fun times meeting some new folks. Saturday we all got up and headed over to the race venue for a pre-ride. We took the course very slow going back over all the obstacles that I didn’t clear the first time. There were only two spots that really got me and I figured that was ok. I can hop over them and get going quickly. The morning of the race I was feeling very nervous. Charity and I were both running around trying to calm our nerves. The race didn’t start until 11:00, and the women didn’t go off till about 11:20. We headed out to get warmed up on the park road. My legs were feeling a bit tired for some reason. I think that we probably did a little too much the day before. Walking around, and pre-riding the course. I was really glad that I had made the decision not to run on Saturday! After getting warmed up we headed over to the start line to chat with the other girls. We had a lot of girls show up for this race! So good to see some familiar faces along with meeting some new ones. It’s time to go….. The whistle blows and we all head up the hill. This was a tough start out of the gate. We were on a jeep road at a decent incline, then goes into a gravel climb. I came out strong in 3rd position, but then blew up way early and dropped to 7th. Ouch… ok.. just breathe…you can catch them later. We made it up the hill and then turned into the sweet singletrack in the woods. This course had a little of everything. On one of the tricky rock sections, I bit it. While trying to get back up I was passed up by several girls in my class as well as the class behind me. Man…. I was able to catch back up to a few of the girls in the Rock Garden of Greatness. I do love the rock gardens. My ballet training and balance really pays off being able to maneuver through these sections. I rock it through and pass Clare (who beat me in the time trial last race in Comfort). Ok… passed Kristi, I’m getting back up there. We come to the flats and I just hammer it out. Going as fast as I could without redlining my heart rate. I came down on my seat and heard it creak. I’ve heard that sound before when I was in Arkansas last year for the Xterra. I knew that my seat post was a little loose. I decided to just let it go and pray that my seat didn’t tilt too much during the race. I knew that I was being closely followed so didn’t want to lose the time that I had gained. The rest of the course was fun… few flats, more rock gardens, a few drops. I knew that I was getting close to coming around to the feed zone and back in for lap 2. The last two miles of the course is FAST! I tried to push it as hard as I could. I had not seen any of the other girls in a while so I knew I was holding on. The feed zone was set up on the hill going back into the course. I took a bottle and heard “GO JOURNEY” Which made me smile. I needed that! Thanks Larson! I felt pretty good heading into the woods for lap 2. I could certainly feel my legs a bit fatigued, but I felt I was back in my groove a bit. I still had not seen Charity (who I was trying to chase down), but I also had not seen any of the other girls that were behind me. I had a harder time with the rock garden on lap two, and then heard someone say that the girl behind me was thirty seconds back. Shoot. Gotta kick it back up. I looked at my heart rate monitor and it was only at about 150… Really? Come on girl.. quit being lazy and PEDAL! Don’t you DARE let her catch you. So I kicked it up and then coming up a little whoop I felt my sit bones come down on my seat and ouch… the seat tilted up. Great. Ok… it wasn’t so bad that it wasn’t rideable, but I’ll tell you it wasn’t comfortable. I was only about 3 miles into a 10 mile course. I just kept pedaling as hard as I could. I finally got to the flats and tried to hammer as hard as I could. At about mile 6 one of the course marshals said that I would be hitting some kid traffic. Uh… WHAT???? What do you mean kid traffic. That question was answered quickly when I came up on my new friend Matt sweeping behind two kid racers. Ok, so I love supporting the kids, but was a little frustrated that they let the kids go off while there were still women on the course. Was I taking THAT long? Or did they just not plan that well. So I pass up two kiddos yelling encouraging words to them. I think over the next three miles I passed about 20 kids. Most of them were very respectful, but it still slowed me down quite a bit. I knew that I still had someone on my tail so I had to keep pushing. I finally hit the last mile section of super fast flats with some rocky easy descents. Finally I’m DONE! It was a fun race, but man that was tough. I came in 5th overall. I was a bit disappointed with that finish, but knew that the 4 girls in front of me were just faster today. Thanks to the Austin Ridge Riders and TMBRA for putting on a great race! A HUGE thanks to Leif for letting us stay at his family’s lake house. What a great home base for this weekend. And to all the girls in my class (especially Charity and Clare) who pushed me to keep pedaling as fast as I could! I’ll see you girls in a few weeks out at Bar H. Watch out…. Ha!
