Kewaunee

Saturday preride - I LOVED the course. Perfect for me. Lots of "technical" twists & turns, short & steep hills, perfect. The first preride lap went so well I went out for a second. Apparently I had my head up my butt on the second lap because I bit the dirt TWICE. On flat, non-technical stuff none-the-less. Duh. Nice battle wounds. . . .figured I'd worked it out of my system so I SHOULD stay upright on Sunday. . . . . .

Saturday night. . . .we listened to the rain hit the roof of the camper thinking "a little rain is ok, a lot is NOT".

Sunday morning - we packed up and got to the course. . . . it was STILL raining. Not a good thing. Watched the citizen riders coming through the ATV trail, not pretty. Tried to do a warm up, shortest one yet - NOT enough. Lined up on the start line, heard we were doing the citizen lap, was bummed because that cut out all the stuff I REALLY liked. Oh well.

Don yelled Goooooooo and we took off. Hit the mud ATV trail, hit the first turn, girls down everywhere. I of course announce "don't grab your front brake", as I KNOW that puts you down in mud. . . . .and then I must have done it myself. Down I go. I got a good slider off that one. Round a few more corners, carnage EVERYWHERE, not only girls, but a BUNCH of sport guys. Once again I did a power slide. This time it wasn't as fun. I was getting just a LITTLE annoyed that I couldn't keep the bike upright.

FINALLY make our way out of the ATV trail and onto the course. Once again, carnage everywhere. Every 20 feet there were people pulling off to pull mud out of their tires. I think I passed about 35 men & women the first lap just by riding with the mud on my bike. When we got to the single track, we couldn't even ride it. Some of it was unrideable (the first lap), and almost everyone was walking. I kicked the cyclocross skills into action and started running. Yeah, that was good on the slipped disk. It did get me up to 4th place in the women, where I remained until part way into the 3rd lap. Then it all hit the shitter. My back was KILLING me. My cleats were SOOOOO full of mud I couldn't clip in to save my life, no matter HOW hard i tried to kick the mud out. I learned I do not know hot to pedal without being clipped in, and I use my hamstrings about 85% MORE without being clipped in. The hamstrings are connected to the glutes, which are connected to the back, which is where my bulging disk is, so I had no choice but to take it down a notch unless I wanted to be carried out of there. Slipped back to 9th, rode it out, wanted to cry, felt like someone beat me with a stick. I'm such a girl.

I'm in physical therapy. . . hopefully that will help the "issues" and I'll come back stronger REAL soon. Kuddos to Tammi who took 5th overall. I wish the body would have let me hang with you. Maybe next time.

And where the hell did the Captain - BILL NIGH - pull that race out of?!? First in age, 18th overall. Dude, you should ride like that just a little more often. . . . . .obviously you can do it!! Sweet. CK had issues, not feeling good, bad tire choice, ended up being the cheering section. And how about the General? Nice job man. We'll work on the "FINISH" and "LAP" signs so you don't make the same mistake and miss the FINISH chute again. Too bad.