Race report: Butch makes some gnarly trail.

(Photo: Amy) So... race #2, WORS Treadfest. After a year in Citizen I was trying Sport class, a big jump, and had no idea how I'd do. It's scary, lining up with the same people that regularly beat me... by lots. But it's time to suck it up, make a few pukey/gaggy faces at people at the start, and just go.

The first lap, I did well on the climb, and lead a group of 3 up to this right turn where, WOAH! I shrieked, slammed on the brakes, stepped back, and watched three women's lines down a huge loose gravel dropoff. It must have been a hoot to watch, I just totally chickened out, unclipped, and stood there agape. "Just do it," Fran shouted back. And so I did. We rode that lap together and she warned me when the rock garden was coming up. The rocks weren't so bad. It was the stairsteps after them, where the woman in front of me had dismounted, so I had to too. That was my second freakout. (Jeremy was right there to make fun of me- or should I say to watch me make fun of myself- too.)

The lap was long, it was technical, it was super dusty. It was hard to see the trail through the kicked-up dust. Lap 2 I rode it all, but it sucked. So many guys coming around, and very few of them friendly about it. Two crashed into eachother trying to get around me on tight singletrack, one rode the woman behind me into a tree. I made fun of one who said "coming around" when he was still 5 bike lengths back- you gotta catch me before you pass me- and we both had a larf. I rode lap two behind Wendy (Clif Bar) and we chatted pleasantly and exchanged comments about the guys.

I lost Wendy on the climb to lap 3. I was pretty done at this point. I just pushed through, knowing that was my last time down the drop, the last time through the rock garden, the last time up that dang climb. I walked that steep lose gravel uphill and totally missed my saddle and impaled myself while remounting. I really enjoyed that lap, though, it was quiet, there was nobody trying to pass me, and it was just a nice ride. The trails were hard but fun, and with little traffic it was open to ride the way I wanted. As I made my way through to the last bit of singletrack, I heard the "GO" on the PA for the Experts. I was going to get out before they got me, one of my two goals for the race. And then I finished, and wasn't last. Goal #2! So by those measures, I did ok.

I took 6th of 9 in my age group, a whopping 20 min behind the race leader. I'll get there some day. But today was pretty nice anyway. Rad seeing folks I rarely see, good times in the Half Acre tent, a bottle of Spotted Cow, and a fun ride up and back with Erica, who rocked the Spot in Citizen. Yay for sunny trail days.