All the sport women started together so it was hard to determine who was in my class. There were 18 of us in the age group, but probably about 35 of us at the start line. A girl near me was pretty mad that one of the competitors was sandbaggin. Jury is still out for me if that is really the case, but she was upset. Turns out a cat 2 road chick was competing in our class. Supposedly, that translates to Expert class. I kept my eye on her...

Started out too fast, as always. Climbed for freakin ever and by the time we got to the single-track, I couldn't even count how many chicks were in front of me because there were so many. I tried not to worry about it since we were going to be out there for almost 2 hours, there will be time to catch them. Tight single track, lots of rocks and roots, lots of climbing... it was typical ski resort racing. I was a little frustrated because everytime I took the opportunity to pass (which is very difficult on singletrack) something would go wrong. The first time, I passed a group of people on a steep rooty climb, but then picked a bad line and got stuck on a root that stopped me in my tracks. They all passed me back. Then I tried again to pass them on another climb a little while later, and I dropped my chain and it actually got sucked up and caught so I had to stop and coerce it out. After that, it seemed to be ok. Kept passing at every opportunity because I knew it mentally slows the person down that you pass, so getting passed back is less common. Caught up with quite a few boys from the Clydesdale class and by the end passed up an expert woman.

Anyway, I just kept thinking to myself what miss Julia told me the day before, "just ride your own race." I tried not to get caught up in my placing or where other people were or how hard it would be to try to catch them, I just rode my own race. Plan worked perfectly. I had no clue what position I was, I just knew I was moving up. I was hoping for top ten but had no way to gauge where that was. More climbing, more super technical descending. That girl that was supposedly sandbaggin? She would FLY by everyone on the non-technical climbs and fire roads, she had a lot of strength, but everytime there was a technical downhill singletrack, she couldn't do it and caused quite the logjam behind her. Kinda made me mad. When I passed her the last time, I vowed to put some distance between us so it wouldn't happen again.

Last 2 miles was the most exciting. Big climb that hurt. Passed 2 more girls here. It was me behind one other girl that was moving my pace and doing well. I tried to pass her a couple times but she rallied and wouldn't let me by, so I settled in behind her. Eventually, fate intervened. Her front skewer came undone. She was forced to pull off and close it. I smiled to myself and pushed on. Then I came to the last mile. It was a fun section that started with some seriously rocky parts. Two guys in front of me. The one directly in front of me cased it on the rocks, which scared me to see because I immediately thought his arm would be dangling with a broken collar bone for sure, but he was ok. Strangely enough, it was a good thing he wrecked there so I had to put a foot down to get around him safely. I most likely would have done the same as him. Few yards later I was behind another guy. Another rocky section. Another endo for him. Looked horrible. He assured me he was okay and I went by him. Another section that could have taken me out as well. After that... it was all me. No one was in front of me but I could hear a girl not too far behind. I was running scared at that point and went all out. Blazed through the rest of the singletrack and pushed hard to the finish.

Really can't think of anything. I was really happy with how I performed. I really raced hard and felt good about my effort. I never got off my bike (except for the chain deal). Even up the hike-a-bike, I rode it while everyone around me was walking. Unfortunately, my shifting was all sorts of out of whack and my chain was jumping around in all different gears, so I probably lost a lot searching for a gear that would stick. But really, I raced hard and was happy when I finished not even knowing where I placed.

Put the bike away and hung out with Mike and Alex waiting for the results to be posted. Got me some free beer and just enjoyed being there. Took forever for them to put up the results in my class and when they did I thought it was a mistake. No way did I get third! Seriously? It was awesome! Got to get on the podium (actual podium) and they gave me a cool medal and a pint glass. I was happy.