A day in the life of a Looney: Eldora Short Track MSC

Adam got in last night and surprised me! He was supposed to ride up with some friends and would have to leave early Monday morning. I was really bummed out about it, and I guess he was too... so now I get him through the 4th! :) Yes!

I got up at 9 AM today... it was wonderful to NOT get up at 6 AM which has been my routine for the past month. As usual, I was running late to the race, but still managed a 20 minute warm-up. It was NOT substancial, but better than nothing! There were a lot of fast women at the short track today...the roster included top 5 national caliber Luna chick Georgia Gould and a team from new Zealand. I was 3 weeks out of my last race and not feeling great, but I was still excited to be lining up for my first pro short track. The race started out super fast. Girls were throwing elbows and cutting me off. Needless to say, I was getting pushed way off the trail and taking poor lines. It was a good learning experience, and now I know to be way more aggressive. I made some time up in the second lap, but still was not at the front. I was just excited to be on Georgia Gould's wheel for a meer moment at the start of the race! I battled it out with a couple of girls, and was in pure anaerobic hell. It was fun because Adam was watching and a lot of the spectators knew me and could cheer for me. It made me feel special. :) Later I got made fun of for snotting and spitting all over myself like a crazed bull, foaming at the mouth. I could DEFINITELY tell that my body was not used to being pushed to its absolute limit, so I'm really glad I did this short track before Deer Valley Norba National next week. I don't know what happened, but during the race, my diaphragm was cramping up pretty bad making it hard to breath. maybe I had my heart rate monitor on too tight? The short track was a 26 minute long affair. We finished just in time because it started raining at the finish. I got lapped by Gould with 100 m to go. Not bad! I'll be lucky to stay in the short track for 5 minutes next weekend. I think I ended 11th.. At the very end, I wasn't sure it was the last lap, and one woman got me with about 15 ft to go and sprinted around me. DANG IT! Clipped at the line for top 10. Another thing to learn from...shoulda looked back and assessed the situation. I definitely could have given it a little extra gas at the end. Tomorrow is the XC, lots of climbing. I can't wait! YAHOO. It feels so great to be racing again. Adam was awesome and took some photos: