race report - O Cup 6, Kelso

Let me start with telling you about the best-worst pre-ride ever. I wanted to get my pre-ride done early in the week, especially since the trail run the day before the race meant to pre-riding until 1pm. Not the most favorable day-before schedule for getting a few laps and a good recovery done, so I took advantage of the holiday Monday, and went up with Mike to check out the loosely-marked course. It was fantastic! There were a couple of uphills that I struggled on, but nothing major, and best of all, no terrifying pointy-rock gardens or descents that made me want to pee my pants. Woohoo! I was getting pretty excited for this race - hence the best pre-ride ever.

Fast forward to race day. Mike and I made it through the torrential downpour on the 401, and only briefly contemplated bailing on the whole thing. The rain was seriously nasty! But luckily it cleared up quite nicely as we parked and got registered. It was still hot and humid, but wet, so a great opportunity to try out the non-warming embrocation. Loved watching the rain bead on my legs while I warmed up! I think it made more dirt stick to my legs in the end.

After a record number of Senior Ex Women at the last race, we were back down to a small group of 5 for Kelso. The pace was pretty quick off the start, but I felt more prepared for the race effort than I had at Buckwallow, so we all stayed pretty well together. I was last wheel by the time we hit the top of the climb, but 3rd and 4th were not far ahead, and I was able to catch and make up a couple of spots by about the halfway mark. All good, cruising along the double track, getting ready to make the next right into the single track... and I am met with course tape. Turns out the "loosely-marked" course on Monday was missing an entire section! A section which contained some rock gardens that I really would have benefited from practicing in a pre-ride! Not fun at race speed, and with the recent rain, not something I wanted to do on the fly at race-pace, so I ran the majority of the bumpy bumpy rock gardens - hence the worse pre-ride ever.

 

I made it to the end of the first lap sitting in third, only to fall back to 5th by the top of the climb. As before, I made up those spots by mid-way, and was back to third as we headed into the last lap. This time, I only conceded one spot on the climb. Something was different this lap - even though I was working pretty hard, by the mid-way point, I had not caught my third place rabbit. I pushed even harder, but didn't really catch sight of her until we were back at the bottom. As I came into the feedzone climb, I could see her, just at the top. I pushed as hard as I could to close the gap, but all I got was a major cramp in my left quad,. Finished up in 4th, absolutely cooked from the effort, but happy with a good race.