franklin my dear

i wasn't sure if i was looking forward to franklin. i had only raced it once. over 2 years ago. i remembered a couple parts of the course. i mostly remember how hot it was and neil walking around in his spandex with no shirt on... not riding spandex, like spandex with no pad. it was not a good thing. anyway, i convinced my mom to head up there with us.
we arrived about 9:30 or so. we parked in the back of the port a potties. at first i wasn't keen on the idea... sun beating down and poop don't mix. but counting the number of times i visited, i was glad we were close. typical before race prep... get registered... chat with people on the way... chat some more. stall before getting all my stuff out. get my gear out and stare at as if i forgot what i had to do. start pinning my jersey, blabbing, etc. the d'arcy van pulled in as i was doing this. mike, zach, brian, tim, sara and zach all headed our way not to say hi, but to take care of business in the potties.
i headed out for a preride with tony for a bit. we chatted. i realized that i just put new disc brakes on and had not once checked them out. no break in, nothing. i decided not to think about it. we headed back to finish some last minute race preps. said my byes and headed down to staging.
staging seemed to take longer than usual. i felt lonely. there were port a potties in the staging area! this is now my favorite race so far and i hadn't even rode the course yet.
i was for some reason nervous for this race. i dunno why. i haven't been nervous for a race in quite some time. but today... my stomach was a wreck and i felt my heart was beating faster than usual.
i hate the fact that i suck at climbing. john said he'd teach me... when, i don't know. i watched people just pull away, not to mention a few passed me. bummer. by the third lap the start climb felt so big. i think it's a big psychological thing with climbing for me at this point. anyway, a young TW gal passed me climbing up. not to take anything away from her as she's a badass rider, but i couldn't help but be bummed because a 12-14 year old passed me. after the climb i felt better again and almost caught her going into the singletrack. i knew i could catch her in there but how would i pass? she asked if i wanted to go by, but i was still far away... i eventually almost was up on her when she went around a corner and bumped a tree. she apologized. obviously no need and i felt bad for her thinking she had to. i think she was nervous i was behind her. i'm so intimidating. especially in my sleeveless jersey and my new brakes. but honestly i think it was the fact i was in such an easy gear and my chain was slapping around all over the place- very obnoxious...
on the last lap some girl passed me coming off of the moon whatever climb. it must've lit a fire under my ass as i found this untapped energy and gave chase. i didn't catch her to be close enough to draft off of her until the middle of the loose flat gravel. i sat on her in the singletrack, which was of course a bit of a disadvantage in my mind, but in reality i probably would have been bouncing off trees if i were by myself. coming out of the singletrack i followed her over the bridge and headed for the last climb before the switchback descent. i gave it all i had to pass her up that climb (i actually liked that climb) nobody was ahead of me on the descent and hoped to get a bigger gap on her. i had no idea where she was. on the switchbacks i tried not to look. all i kept saying to myself was go go go- i almost felt panicked... i thought i was going to cry climbing up to the finish. i would've been demoralized had she passed me.
i thought i was dying heading toward the end of the finish chute, well not die, but never be able to stand or speak again. john wanted to hand me some water, no way. i couldn't take my hands off the bars.
despite my near death experience at the end...the course was awesome. i had a lot of fun. i ended up 6th overall and 1st in age. it's one of my new favorite courses.
i barely finished in enough time to see john go. i was looking for my mom and lisa. casey ended up doing the kid's race and from what i've heard and now seen (my mom video'd it) she may never do it again. big difference from last weeks bigwheel race. we have some gnarly video of the kid's wors race. they send them down the hill! well, not the big hill, but a really big hill for probably anyone under 5. the trike was moving so fast casey's feet got thrown off it and she was almost out of control. of course knowing she's okay, we laughed our asses off watching it tonight. one little girl took a header over the bars. scared me at first, but my mom said she was fine. a little shaken is all.
water bottle duty as usual. completely uneventful. zach was mia for awhile. turns out he had some tube issues. i saw sara at the end first, 3rd overall for the day. then brian, tim, kelsall, john and finally zach. it was nice to finally see someone else from the team on the podium besides us ladies for a change...
*note to self- practice opening gels and putting water bottle back in cage. if i practice i will probably gain a spot in the overall.