8-hour relay

Why am I so slack in the blog posts? Since I have a readership of 0, it probably doesn't matter that much...

Saturday was the last race for the summer training season. It was an 8 hour relay, with a four gal team. Overall, really great. And an excellent event before taking a couple of weeks off.

The team was probably what really made this event so much fun. Everyone was working hard and staying pumped about racing all day. It was a positive vibe, without being saccharine. I give great props to L, who was willing to sacrifice her lap so that the team could hang onto our position - in retrospect, I wish I had been as gracious and giving a team player, but, um, I wasn't -- although in my defense, we got in one more lap because I was stubborn about doing another lap, and was able to crank out a really fast one! Big thanks to the other girls' boyfriends, who offered mechanical support, and acted as a cheering squad and photographers. We finished in 2nd, and had a great time doing so!

Head up - good. Looking where I want to go - good. Smiling and having fun - good.

My own laps were pretty good. It had rained earlier in the day, including just before the start, so it was still a bit wet when I got on the course. As a result, I slid out on some roots in a corner, giving myself a pretty lovely bruise. Lap two was quite a bit more dry, so a bit faster, although I still couldn't get through without getting my front wheel caught (on roots - again!), and taking a tumble. My last lap was the homerun, and after R and P put in some very solid laps, I had to really gun it to make the cut off time. I had little margin for error, so I ran all of the sections that had given me problems earlier, attacked every climb, and just pushed it as much as I could. I am really happy with putting out my fastest lap of the day, and really making it count, finishing with about 2 minutes to spare. The rest of the day, chilling with the girls and watching the rest of the race, made it a great event.