out of sorts

the plan was to leave early on friday to get to mt. morris in time to pre-ride.
luckily i read the wors message board, no pre-riding on friday. bummer, but no big deal. just as i was going to call john, ryan from 3 doors down knocks on the door- "can you bring my mom to the hospital- she cut her hand real bad." of course, out the door as fast as possible and bring jean to urgent aid.
the cut was bad... worst i've ever seen in real life. about 90 minutes later we were out the door back home.
just a little bump in the plans, no chance to pre-ride anyway.
my diet friday was horrible. i had nothing of great nutritional value except the half of turkey sandwich early in the afternoon. friday has us eating after 10:30, mostly because we were starving.
race day the free breakfast at the super 8 wasn't holding well with me all morning. couple that with not being able to do #2 wasn't helping. my stomach was crampy all day.
we arrived at the course. the ritual was changed. it was saturday, elites went off first, my race wasn't til 3:30pm. i thought it was rather comicable that we were all thrown off as to when to eat, when to get dressed. the normal cues weren't there.
as the afternoon went on i started to feel even crappier. was it the heat? the food i ate? sitting around all day? maybe all of the above. i was so bloated my shorts didn't fit me. i wasn't looking forward to racing.
at the start line i felt like i was going to puke. i just felt light headed and real sweaty. my mentality wasn't the best either- i had it in my mind it was going to be miserable, which was dumb. before we actual rolled up to the line i did, however tell myself that the first lap would hurt as usual but i'd settle in and just ride. it'll be fun. that's the way every race has been so far.
don said go, we tangled with a couple comps. one of the guys was super rude. i understand his frustration, but its not our fault. he was one guy, we were 20. anyway, we could argue back and forth about what was right or wrong, bottom line is the timing of this event sucked. classes starting in the heat of the other's finish. anyway, saw a couple comps on the first lap. bill was behind me at one point and was super encouraging. i was hurting pretty bad and instead of pulling over for him to go by, he kept me going with words of encouragement and was patient til he could pass safely.


i honestly don't remember much of the race, especially the first two laps except vomiting in my mouth a few times. i almost wished i'd just puked and got it over with. my head felt like it was going to explode. my face had to have been a bright tomato red. i remember regina falling over probably just as red-lined as i was. i could barely talk to ask her if she was okay. i remember john handed me a bottle going into my second lap, i couldn't even say anything to him. i don't remember the last time i struggled that much.
i fell down in the one uphill switchback, luckily bubba was there to help pick me up. that's what i get for pulling over to let someone by. oh well. i thought i had a minor scratch, but it turned out to be more of a puncture on top of my knee.
we came through on our third lap just as they let the citizens go. a nightmare ensued. it was pure chaos in the singletrack and the doubletrack.
by the middle of the third lap i started to feel a lot better. it was almost like a switch was turned on and some of my power came back. i didn't feel like i was going to puke, i was able to breathe which was a big plus, but at that point i was already so far behind. i picked off a whole lot of citizen riders after that and saw two sport gals just ahead. i was able to catch deb and pass her, partly due to the citizen guys making a wrong turn. i saw little sara just ahead but we were too close to the finish to battle it out.
shout out to regina, she was super strong saturday. when she passed me i could tell she wasn't in the hurt bag and was going to have an awesome day!
my result shows much better than the kind of day i had and how i felt. 1st age and 6th overall.
my stomach still was a bit crampy today. i wonder if i have the goat bug?
john had a good day. he came back with a smile and said he had an awesome time. 3rd age and 25th overall for him.



*pics from goat and sheri