The Rat Race

This past weekend was my first cross country marathon bike race. It was held in Roberts Creek on the Sunshin-ing Coast. Waking up to rain wasn't exactly my idea of a good time, but as we neared the race start, the clouds disappeared and the skies smiled down. Today was a good day I decided.

The race commenced shortly after 10:30AM. With a gun to signal go and 2 logging trucks creating a scary, loud tunnel we were off on our 48 km pain filled bike ride. Starting the race out feeling awesome, I sprinted up close to the front. This race was on home turf and everyone I knew and loved was there watching and cheering. It was awesome. I felt so appreciated. The first 12 km was a massive, vertical climb up a local favourite, Pumpkin Patch..note to self, ride DOWN Pumpkin Patch. No, it was tough, but I had spent countless hours going over lines and repeating the hill so I knew exactly how I wanted the race to go. I got to the hill and didn't feel great, which was a little discouraging, but it takes time to warm up and I needed to respect that of my body. After a while of climbing and breathing hard, my body felt warm. I was then having fun. The climb just kept ascending, it was like a never ending nightmare of mud and slick rock. When we finally did reach the top, again, there was a huge crowd of loved ones cheering me on.
Getting to the decent I wanted to make up some time. I was sitting about 10th over all woman and wasn't really to content with that placing. I sprinted as hard as I could down the hill, basically having no control at all. My arms were like jello and the trails were so rutted out and muddy that my eyes were closed. The whole way down I screamed I had no brakes so people would move HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH. It was cool. When I finally reached the bottom of the first decent there was a feed station, my mom was happily waiting with my friends and brother. STOKED to have such an amazing support team mountain biking, and with a new bottle of gatoraded-water. I started to ascend one more time. The climbing in that was ruthless. JEEZZEEEE.....
Then some more stuff happened, in which I would explain but it basically is the same as above and that would just bore you. So I will skip to the ending....
The last decent was approaching and I was sitting 5th woman. I knew at the bottom of this decent I had a little uphill sprint and then the finish line. I went hard along the downhill and nearing the uphill road I saw my dad. Just seeing his face light up wanted to make me cry. I hadn't really been getting along with him lately and to see him proud of me and appreciating what I was doing was the best part of the race for sure. "GO SHORTYYYYY" he screamed and I sprinted like mad to that finish line.
I finished 5th woman and first junior, but best of all, had a SUPER fun race. I was feeling like lately all my races were based on contending other people. I went into this race in a different mind frame. I wanted to race this race for myself, not for others. It was so good. I did things because I wanted and didn't base my decisions on what would please other people.
Thank you Rod and Tanya, you guys are awesome Race organisers. The Rat Race 2007 was a huge success and we were lucky to benefit from all your hard work.