the weekend

friday i ended up on the road (duh) as i think the singletrack here may still be under water. i haven't checked lately. i took the walt out. 32:19 on flat pavement with your seat too low for 13 miles kinda sucks. but i was glad to be out.
saturday was zoe's second first birthday. this time with my family. we shared the day with my cousin erin and my niece audrey. great food, good people and fun times.
there was tons of chicken, beef, pasta and beans to enjoy all day long. not to mention like 5 cakes! i wish i was there right now.
sunday came and we decided to hit the kickapoo race right outside of danville, il.
i used to ride down there years ago (like 8). i forgot how cool the trails were (even cooler now) and how much singletrack there was (even more now). it was a 10.3 mile loop of essentially all singletrack. it was all singletrack except maybe a 1/4 mile of double track and about 1/2 mile of open field singletrack. the rest was up and down and back and forth in the trees. 3 killer climbs, some awesome decents, tons of jumps, roots, logs, etc. my race was 20 miles. the trails were in perfect condition!
you couldn't have asked for a better day to be out on the trails.


i took 1st overall, john took 7th. Ben was there- he took 3rd (he has a great write up of the race). nice job ben.
i remember being nervous at this race. i don't even know why. i knew what to expect. we mass started with all the men. i remembered surprise hill (cruising on the singletrack in the field, sharp ass right turn into a steep short hill) and knew i'd be walking. no biggee. i started as second woman and stuck on her wheel for the first few miles thinking this was a good pace. then it dawned on me, this is singletrack- GO. i passed as the trail widened a bit and just pedaled. we came to this creek crossing and then it went up with rocks and roots strewn in just to make it hard (it was sweet). i know if i wore a heartrate monitor it would have been over my max i'm sure. i was breathing mouth open and super loud. i don't think i closed my mouth and quieted for another 3 or 4 miles. it took me a long time to recover from the effort. i was hurting but knew i'd recover and just be able to go faster. i didn't know where the other ladies were and i was determined to get a 1st here (per jeremey). for the rest of the race i traded spots with a few guys. every time i heard someone i was convinced it was another woman so i'd pick it up. i didn't have a rear brake for the entire race. i don't know what the deal was. i'm guessing some of the chain stuff somehow got onto the rotor. i was hoping it would burn off but it never did. it didn't really matter, in fact it probably helped me as sometimes i'll hit the rear brake to scrub speed when i really don't need to- it's like a safety thing (habit) i guess. the only time it got me was on this steep downhill section that went sharp left after a root drop off. i had no idea it was coming. i went to use the rear brake to skid the turn and it wasn't there so i had to lay it down for fear of going off the edge. no harm really just a nice scab today. next lap i was fully prepared for it. i finished in 2 hours and 7 minutes. it was over 20.5 miles. i still suck at eating on the bike. so sucky that i might as well just stop and pull over to eat. i'm ordering a gu bottle or whatever today. it was impossible to drink water on that course! it just never stopped. i didn't even get to use my bar ends. that's how much tecnical singletrack there was.
john came in after his 30 or so miles and said he just didn't have it today but had fun regardless. he was ready to throw down with a guy who said "fucking singlespeeders" when he got bounced off of a steep short hill until he looked over and saw the dude was on a singlespeed. good fun.

i will say it was nice to see the way our bikes looked at the end of a race for a change.


the drive home was uneventful. i mean it was a nice change of pace from driving in and out of wisconsin. but 57 is a very boring drive to say the least.


once we got home we cleaned out both trucks, cut down a tree and mowed the lawn- not to mention laundry, unloading etc. we never sat down (except for driving) all day. i think we both passed out about 9pm.