Oh Yeah, OUCH is the word of the day

Wow. What a day. I woke up last night in a pool of sweat and figured today was going to be bad. The congestion from the cold was in my head pretty good. Decided what the heck, as long as my back allows me to, I'm racin'.

We set out for our LONG 4 minute drive to Sunburst, wishing it was just a TINY big warmer, and maybe a bit less windy. Somehow time got away on me, and suddenly it was time to get ready. My "support team" abandoned me and I felt stressed out. I had to do it all! I had to put my own number plate back on my bike, get my tires ready, pin my number on my jersey (that alone took about 10 minutes and 18 tries and then SS Amy STILL had to fix it). Headed out on pre-ride, expelled a TON of "stuff" from my head and was out of breath before we were down to the end of the street.

I got to the start line, and Don must have been feeling generous because he called up 4 deep in our age class. . . .or maybe it was a sympathy call up. . . . . .but there I was on the start line and it was all I could do not to cry (what a girl).

He yelled "GOOOOOOOOOOOO" and I went. I stayed at the back and tried to listen to the body. If the back was angry, I was toast. I didn't spend all that time OFF my bike to be set back again. But it hung in there.

There were people cheering for me EVERYWHERE. It was so exciting. Of course I could barely hear them over my profuse PANTING & HYPERVENTILATING, but I was on my bike, and I was RACING. Sweet. I thought I forgot what to do, but somehow I pushed myself beyond where I've ever been pushed. My lungs were on FIRE, my legs were screaming, but my back was ok and that's all that mattered.

1 hour 9 minutes, AHR 182 (my lactate threshold), several tears shed and somehow I ended up 10th overall (minus SS's) and second in age. Tammi had a mechanical and as short as that race was, must not have the time to catch up again. I rode the whole thing and didn't even have to walk. Sweet.

Here's my podium picture. . . . .I didn't make it there as I was doing handoffs for the boys.



We'll see how the body feels tomorrow. Hopefully I didn't dig a hole, my back is OK, and THEN I can officially say "I'm BACK".