calumet

we made a last minute decision to head out to WORS #7. we left about 6:30am and headed north. i'd been to this event once before but it was for work, so i didn't race. i didn't even ride the course as it had rained that year. thanks to jerry for the rockstar parking and mountaingoat for passing off the pass... it was nice to not be miles away from the course.
my race started at 11:30am as usual. i didn't feel good. i was super bloated and my stomach was super tore up. there was a long road and grass lead out, 1.89 miles. my favorite. i fell off the back on the road and entering the grass... i passed a few ladies coming up the grass heading to the ski hill. i was 12th climbing the grassy part of the ski hill. brutal but short climb. then it was pretty flat except for a few more climbs. i always felt like i was climbing though... on one particular hill i passed a couple of gals climbing up, i don't remember where, but i think it was the one next to the freshly cut singletrack. so at this point i was sitting in tenth when singlespeed amy came roaring passed me! holy shit. i didn't know whether to think she was badass fast on that climb or i was super slow! i think it was a combo of both. i never saw her after that.




















coming around the start area for my second lap i think, or was it my third? i saw someone in my age group... i think i took the dirt climb too hard to catch her. i pretty much did, but couldn't recover and she took off on the multitrack to never be seen by me again. coming into the finish i missed the stupid left turn and had to slam on the brakes, turn around and finish. 2nd age, 11th overall. not bad for feeling poopy.
i finished in 1:19. plenty of time to change and watch john take off. it was kind of a small elite field. mikelsall was there as well as dave and tim racing comp. tony and i watched the elites take off. john came around the lake in like 4th to last! very unlike him. but he picked people off as the race went on. he liked the course and had a good race.
we took off early, didn't check expert results and headed for some food. some hobo restaurant. i had an open roast beef sandwich with a huge mound of mashed potatos and gravy. yum.