iola

driving home yesterday i was telling john i really don't have much to write about as far as racing iola. nothing that stuck out really.
Saturday had us driving up north to meet up with the goat and other peeps. pre-ride. it pretty much rained on and off all the way there. i thought for sure we weren't riding. about 10 minutes from the course it stopped raining. sweet.
we pulled in shortly after the goat and peeps. i dressed shortly after to chase barb. my back was killing me. it was awful. and all the climbing. shit. i forgot how much climbing iola has. i had to keep shifting down as my back screamed at me. when i finally caught barb i stretched out a bit and moved my saddle back like 7mm. hopped back on and it was a dream. it was my bike back. i think when i replaced the post i thought it had much more setback than the use did. in reality it doesn't have much more at all. looks can be deceiving. anyway, i was stoked! my back still hurt, but it wasn't locked up. i could still pedal, it hurt, but i could actual pedal. i rode one lap and headed back to the car understanding why jesse and marko have bar tape on their bontrager bar ends. those effers are effin slippery!
the course was in good conditions. some wet spots here and there. i knew sunday would have pretty much perfect conditions. little did we know how perfect the day was going to be.
after john and the guys pre-rode we headed to the hotel to clean up a bit and grab some food. we hit a pretty good mexican restaurant and loaded up. yum. i actually wouldn't mind having mexican food right now. i love it.
in bed early, well we tried. zoe was a force to be reckon with. she kept taking her pajamas off saying "hot". so we had no choice but to let her strip. she finally went down right about 10pm. apparently she's one of those people that has to read them self to sleep.


it was difficult trying to get that magazine off her without waking her up. she latched onto it every time we tried to pull it away.
sunday morning had us eating breakfast with fellow bloggers and wors peeps.
raisin bran, peanut butter and jelly toast, yogurt, coffee, juice. free breakfast rules.
out to the course. we got there about an hour and half early for my start time which is really unusual for us. we've been known to "cut it close".
it was nice to not rush, to have time to dress, warm up, get my shit together.
i rode for a bit warming up, stopped and chatted a few, stretched. i even was able to tape my bar ends with good old medical tape. it was nice.
i stood in staging looking around at new faces, familiar faces, wondering who would take the win, who i'd be competing with. i was hoping it'd be as fun as last year with all of us gals pretty equal. having different strengths and weaknesses, each having a good day or a bad day but always having fun.


don said go and i found myself in unfamiliar territory. at the front at the start. whoa. this has never happened, well not for awhile anyway. so i started thinking, is this where i want to be? the start climb seemed easy. it wasn't as painful as i remember last year at the tater bake. that feeling didn't last long.
the first part of the course at iola is brutal. up, down, up, down.
i felt okay. i waited to long to eat as usual. i knew when i should've eaten but i didn't. i can't say i would've gained a spot or two but i definitely would've felt better going into lap 3.
i finished 9th overall and 1st in age. angela could've pimped me at the line and she didn't. i would have for sure been bummed, but that's racing. i don't think i would've pimped her either. my goal was top 10. i did it. i felt better than i thought i would after being so sick beginning of last week. tuesday i couldn't even ride 11 miles, i wanted to call john to come get me. so who knows. i'll never know if being sick affected me or not.
the race conditions couldn't have been any more perfect- the weather, the course. just amazing.
it was so awesome that all of us sport girls had such close times. 3rd thru 12th are all seperated by a couple minutes. how cool is that? should make for an exciting competitive season!
i'm hoping to redeem myself at geneva in two weeks. that was my first race last year and it was horrible!