wi state ss champs at the hpt

(I really should have been eating at this time instead of taking pictures)














It was awesome. The run sucked. I haven’t ran since H.S. I’m dead serious. Like a ¼ mile run. I surprised myself that I actually ran the whole way though. Thought for sure I’d finish walking it.



















Murphykate was off the front… She’s a cross country runner so was way up to start. She blew us other girls away.

It took me forever to recover. The whole ½ start lap I couldn’t breathe. Let me first tell you that I purposely ordered endless cogs (23, 24 and 25) for this race. Got them and they wouldn’t slide on my freehub! So I ended up running a 32:21 which I knew would be too big, but I tried not to focus on it. Well, I really focused on it that start ½ lap… holy crap. It was switchback after switchback with steep climb after steep climb. I was miserable. I had doubts about finishing if the whole course was like that. I attempted to count the monkeys that were all over the course, but to be honest I kept getting stuck at 8 and 9. I still don’t know how many there were… those two frisky monkeys were having way more fun than I was when I passed them at one point.


Anyway, I came through the start finish lap finally starting to recover. I headed out to do a complete lap. I was actually starting to feel good. I came zooming down this widetrack and saw Murphykate on the other side. At this point I had no idea how close she was. I had no idea until I reached the end of the widetrack and made the turn. Holy crap. I could win. Nah, probably not. But still. I just pedaled along and didn’t see her anymore. I figured she saw me and stepped it up. I knew I’d see her in the singletrack. And I did. The singletrack was killer. Off cambr log crossings. Bridges. Cut out trees, bridges, rock gardens. Sweet. I was riding behind her talking. I think I made her nervous. I never passed her. It’s funny, I didn’t have any desire to. I knew she’d blow me away out of the singletrack and I was just content to ride with her (I’m so competitive).

We saw a sign that said “passing ahead”, or something like that, so I figured it was going to flatten out. It didn’t. It was a switchback which had a wide open climb. Boo. Murphykate can walk way faster than me! She was gone never to be seen again. I didn’t even try to find her… but even if I did, I don’t think I would’ve won anyway.

I was super low on water and no food. Did I mention I pulled a lame-o move before the race and didn’t eat? I was starving. I also didn’t know how many laps. I was sure Jesse, Marko and John would’ve lapped me by now. They hadn’t so I thought I was on my last lap. Boy was I wrong… I heard Jesse, saw him and cheered him on. Marko was shortly after. Then nobody. But the wind was let out of my sails… I had one more lap… I was starving, had no water and was a bit bummed.

So I recovered from the bum out about as quickly as it came and was on my way to the start finish area. No water boy? Where the fuck is James? Great. There is no way I can finish a lap without water, in fact, I think I needed two! But I wasn’t about to quit even though I thought about it like 23 times.

I saw some fellow WORS racers who are practically my neighbors and asked them for water. Tom tossed me a bottle… it didn’t reach me and landed on the ground and opened up. CRAP. So I grabbed it real fast to save as much water as possible… I didn’t want to ask for more. They were doing 12 hour solo. So I at least had some water.

I rode the singletrack much better this time even. It was super fun… but the gel started to wear off, my stomach was growling and I was trying to save water for the other side. I could feel my left leg- you know that feeling when you know eventually you were going to cramp? Yeah, that was happening.

I was starting to feel the effects of no food, no water, etc. I was just getting ready to pass to the other side. I was sort of dreading it. It took forever. My left leg was cramping at the slightest motion and my right foot was starting to cramp. I tried to make sure I kept my foot straight to pedal. With all the climbing and being dehydrated I pretty much walked the last half lap. I felt like I walked way more than I rode. I think I even walked flats thinking they were climbs. I couldn’t even clip in. I just put my foot on the pedal and eventually it would go in. There was this one step up between two trees… when I got to it for the third time, I swear it was way bigger than the other two times. How did I ever get passed this thing those other two times?

I felt dumb. How long have I been racing? How the hell did I forget to eat? And how many times had I been burned by people supposed to be feeding me water? I kept thinking about sitting and tell the next person who passed me to get me water. Or I kept hoping for John to come get me… I felt like I was out there forever… I kept thinking about the Mississippi river and how close it was. I just wanted water.

I finally finished in just under 3 hours I believe… around 10 minutes behind the winner and 30 some minutes up on 3rd place. There were a lot of what ifs like there usually is for me… I seem to learn my lessons more than once. But in the end it’s always fun and that's all that matters. I’m glad we made the drive.

I found out that endless had a bad run of cogs… so I’ll be calling/emailing them today to get the skinny.

The only thing I regret from the weekend is not checking out Jesse’s basement.

Thanks to Jesse for letting us stay on his hard floors. As hard as they were it was way better than waking up at 3am. As much as I wanted to kick James’ ass I appreciate him being there getting me water (when he remembered) and taking pics. Thanks to Tom and Gina for the water. And of course thanks to Twin Six for making such cool stuff and sharing it with me.

On the way home the Montee's thule case popped open from all of Murphykate's well earned hardware. I was just getting ready to make fun of them and they pulled off the road.