MNSCS #3 The Dirt Spanker - Andrea's Point of View

The day was beautiful for the sport riders!

I started out my morning by squeezing in a pre-ride just before the Kidscomp and First Timers went out on the course. Now that I have been riding most of these trails for 4 years now I don't always think I need to pre-ride, but I was glad I did. I always seem to remember the fun easy flowing sections, but I forget about the punchy little uphills and the roots and other things that tend to slow me down when I don't know the trail. So the pre-ride was good, because it reminded me of the trail and let me make a few adjustments on my bike before my race.

I always do better in a race with a longer warm-up, but I was done with my pre-ride at about 9:45 and my race did not start until 11. I made the mistake of not getting back on my bike again before the race to warm my legs back up. I was going to and just before our race started it rained for just a couple minutes. I really have no excuse, we'll just call it a lesson learned.

Generally I'm a pretty good hill climber. At the start of the race I got a very good start, there were only 2 women ahead of me and then I quickly started to fade. Suddenly I looked and ladies were passing me left and right. Then I heard one of the ladies getting quite a bit of encouragement from her dad, and it sounded like she was about to pass me too. So I dug a little deeper and sped up a bit. I was able to pass a few people up the second hill after the turn and then I was off. I looked ahead and I saw 6 women ahead of me and I was gunning to pass as many as I could. throughout the first lap I was able to pass 3 of them. So I thought that left me in 4th position. The first lap went great, the pre-ride helped immensely. I was able to shift correctly to get up most of the punchy uphills and I knew when I could kick it for a time because the trail was nice and flowing for awhile. I was happy to not have to walk any of the long uphills and I had no crashes.

I passed by the water tent and grabbed a couple of glasses and drank some and dumped some on my back, Matt was waiting for me just passed the water tent to do a hand off. I drank a bit more from my water and grabbed my Acclerade for the last lap. Then Matt proceeded to spray my back with my bottle, which surprised me a bit because it was so cold but it felt great. He then let me know I was in 5th place. I was confused and I said no I think I am in 4th, he said 1 lady was way out front. So I was a little bummed, because generally the faster women in sport are the ladies who are 35+. So the only thing I could do was ride strong and hope to catch some of them.

The second lap went well. After the hill and then there is a small downhill which leads directly into a steep uphill, I made it up about half way then I had to walk the rest. It's not a very long hill, but just before I hopped back on my bike I glanced behind me and noticed one of the ladies I had already passed was right behind me. I shifted down a few gears and took off, I did not want anyone I had already passed passing me back. A little bit later I caught glance of the next lady in front of me, although she was riding strong and I was never able to catch her. I continued to pass guys who were falling back and I never was passed after the initial climb on the first lap. The second lap was much like the first I stayed strong, my legs felt good, and I was flowing through the trail well.

I ended up with 5 overall for the ladies out of 12 and 2nd in my age group out of 5 and 55 out of 97 for the overall Sport category. I didn't recognize any of the 4 ladies ahead of me 1 of them was a Duluth native I always give expect they will beat me. But I googled some of the others after I got home. Kelly Skillicorn was the 1st overall lady and when I looked up her info I found out that earlier this year Kelly won the American Birkebeiner (a 53 kilometer cross country ski race with over 9000 participants the male winner was from Russia) and the rest of Kelly's info told me she has been an elite athlete for years. The other 2 ladies also had athlete backgrounds including winning or coming close to the top in their racing careers also. So then I didn't feel so bad.
Lately I've been feeling like I just don't have the same strength as last year, and I probably don't many rides have been skipped due to moving (twice), the end of school, a cold spring..... But I have been fairing quite well in the races considering, my singletrack riding has gotten faster and flows more smoothly, but my hill climbs have gotten a bit slower I feel (I have no data to back that up, it's just how I feel as I climb). Matt tells me I'm probably more tired on the hills now because I can push it faster through the rest of the race. I hope that's why. I am now back to keeping to my riding schedule as much as I can. Many Saturday rides still get missed, because of traveling to races and Sunday's being races I usually don't get my long endurance ride in for the week (I think that hurts the most). Last year we started our training just before Thanksgiving and this year we didn't start until after January 1st so we were still in our build phase when the race season started. This year I think I will start again near Thanksgiving, if nothing else it helps the body during all the big eating events that happen that time of year.

Mt. Du Lac gave me back some of my confidence though, I remembered how to push hard to try to catch people and how to keep the ride clean to stay ahead of people. I'm looking forward to Mt. Kato this weekend, it is one of my favorite trails.