Monday, November 5, 2012

BARTON PARK.

This past weekend’s race was at Barton Park which was near Estacada. We decided to drive up the day of the race so we could save some $$$. Hollis and I got up EARLY around 5:30 am, but it was daylight saving so we did get an extra hour, which was nice and NEEDED!  
 Weather wasn’t bad. It wasn’t raining and it was warm. I had brought all of my gear, but was undecided if I was going to race or not because of low funds…
We met Hollis’s parents at the race, they were excited to get to watch. They have always been incredibly supportive in whatever we do and they try to come watch and cheer us on as much as they can.
Hollis frantically got ready for his race, while I stayed with Hollis’s parents and Lincoln (our dog). We went and found a good spot to watch. From where we were we could see the gravel road portion of the course and just above that was a steep muddy downhill that went into some tight corners. By this time I was just enjoying watching and cheering, I had pretty much decided that I couldn’t afford to do this race so I wasn’t stressing out about the course.
Hollis was doing great from what we could see. Every time we saw his purple kit come around we could cheer as he’d pass a few people. He ended up getting a flat on his last lap which was a bummer :-/.
When Hollis was done we went and cheered (heckled) some more. We met up with our friend Luke who is VERY good at heckling people! He asked if I was racing and I said no and I kind of expressed how I was trying to save money in case we may need to move soon. (Stressful time!) Luke just says “ If you want race, race. Money should not hold you back, let me pay for you.” Now I have a hard time accepting these kind of things, it just makes me feel awkward, but I said okay. Hollis says I am now a sponsored racer since my race was paid for ;-). I went and got registered but still had awhile before my race.  We hung out for a little while longer and then I went to start getting my stuff ready. I packed all of my cold weather riding gear, thinking that it was going to be cold…. It wasn’t it was almost 70 degrees!  I went for a warm up ride by myself and then met up with Elise, Kaylee, and Steve and went for another short ride before we headed to the staging area.
I wasn’t really sure how this race was going to go. I wanted to do good since Luke paid for me to race. There was also a Rapha jersey up for grabs for each winner of each category. I thought to myself how awesome it would be to win that jersey! The whistle went off and we took off onto the gravel road. This was going to be a fast race! I peddled hard as I tried to move my way up. From gravel we went into some thick mud, that led into a steep muddy run up. After killing myself and my lungs on the run up we pedal down a dirt gravely road that drops us into the muddy downhill, this is where I was feeling a little nervous. While cheering early I saw a few racers really biff it here! All or nothin I thought as I charged into it, this is where I passed quite a few girls. After that we went around some steep corners then into a wooded area and then out on to a paved road. I really liked this course, probably my favorite one so far!
Lap by lap went by. I was pushing really hard to pass girls. I was so focused on catching people I couldn’t actually remember how many laps I did. I had looked down at my Garmin and I had been racing for over 30 minutes and I could feel myself getting tired and slowing down. I kept thinking to myself “Just push harder you’re almost done! You can kill yourself for one more lap!” As I approached the muddy run up I knew the finish line was near. I could hear Hollis and his parents cheering for me. I got to the top of the run up and then fumbled big time! I couldn’t mount my bike. I was hopping around like a goon taking my time! I could hear Hollis yelling at me! Finally I managed to get on my bike and cross the finish line without being passed which was a miracle! I coasted over to the grass and lied down staring at the sky. This was the hardest I have EVER pushed myself in race and it felt AWESOME!
I ended up getting 7th out of 34. So close to that damn jersey! Maybe next time! J