Summer Soltice Mountain Bike Race

This weekend was another MTB race - The Summer Solstice. It is on the Sulpher Springs loop which is a challenging loop that feels like there is more climbing that fast downhill. I actually was dreading it the night before knowing it would be a sufferfest. The sport women only had 1 lap of 12km though, which helped knowing going into it.

I was nervous race morning, but Ken and Kerstin Hurd stepped in to help alleviate that. Ken halped with what to do for warm-up and just being his usual supportive self, and Kerstin was her usual sweet self, which simply calmed my nerves being around her - she is lovely and not racing this year as they have a baby on the way! Here is a picture of them I pulled of Facebook:

When it came time for us (the Sport Women) to line up I was a wreck! I actually didn't even want to race! However like triathlon, once the gun goes off all nerves are forgotten and you just go. Race was fast with lots of climbing and a HR in the 170's (this is high for me but typical of mountain biking) until the fun downhill sections that make you smile ear to ear. There was also alot of mud which left many of us look like we were auditioning for a Tide commercial. And my Ibis got very muddy and several times throughout the race of trying to dislodge my chain (including 5 seconds into the race!) due to chain suck. However, mud in the eye, all over the bike, all over us and even in our teeth - but it was a fun day and I was on m MTB which is where I love to be.

So I let my HR recover and Bogi and Ramona came up and asked if I wanted to ride another hour. Hell yeah! So we rode up a new trail and made it back in exactly 1 hour. We all then spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in the sun. Ramona, Bogi, Carthy, Shawna, Allistair and a few others helped make the afternoon so much more fun as we chatted, ate, re-capped the race, and won draw prizes  - and they all actually made the podium! A great day of mountain biking.