i did it!

I did it! I did what I said I would never do - I raced Buckwallow blind, without a pre-ride!

Admittedly, I use the term race pretty loosely, since I wasn't exactly in the mix, or even remotely close to the rest of my category (or the category that started behind me) - but I did have a number plate and had paid and all that plus there was a start and finish line, so technically it was still a race, even though the Boy told me afterwards that you aren't supposed to session a section in a race, even if you are DFL and just want the validation that you can ride it.

Anyhow, we woke up bright and early on Saturday to pack the car and get up to Gravenhurst. Just after we picked up Mike, we learned that pre-riding was closed for the whole day due to pouring rain. We decided to head up early anyway, getting the drive done, and arriving exactly during another torrential downpour. Oh great! Course was definitely closed for riding, but Mike and I opted to walk it (I may never do this again - it took two hours, and I swear my hips are still sore. Also, I hardly ever walk anywhere, let alone hike, so I caught my foot and tripped about every 10 minutes. PICK UP YOUR FEET!). Lengthy walk in the woods done, we went to check into our home for the night, and then out to the team dinner/potluck.

Sunday morning I certainly didn't feel like I was there for a race - far too relaxed, and I didn't touch my bike the day before. I managed to feel a bit more in the mood by the time we got into the start corral, and was feeling better since no one else had pre-ridden either. My tentative first lap was not ok, but after I had one go-around on the course and knew that I was last, I just decided to hunker down and get some good practice with the mud and wet roots. And yes, that may have included re-riding a couple of rocks on the back end of the course!