Better late than never ... race report for Fort Steilacoom (March 18th)
Race started off well .. even got there a good 30 minutes early! It was a bit chilly - just above freezing and some snow and hail in the air. I dug out the winter gloves, winter hat, vest, warm arm and leg-warmers and debated if riding around prior to the race was warming me up or cooling me down :)
I raced at Fort Steilacoom a few years ago and remembered it as a fitness course ... i was not disappointed ... lots of climbing and wider trails. Very fast course!!! The race had a fast start .. on pavement no less! Off we went, and up right away ...i wasn't quite ready for that but it definately warmed me up. My strategy this race was a bit different ... to follow the women around me and see where i landed. It turned out to be a pretty good strategy and I was feeling good about 12 minutes into the race, and sitting in 3rd. No sooner did i think to myself "i could do well at this race" then i went down. Hard. I like to call this event 'the attack of the ice mud'. I was going super fast down the single-track ... slight turn to the left and up again. I was carrying as much speed as i could so i could carry momentum up the hill ... and wham! down i went. It would have been the perfect slide if I was a baseball player ... but i'm not :) Of course I landed on my favorite side to crash (left) ... more bruises and scratches to add to the colleciton.
I was up pretty quick ... Had to adjust my handlebars - they got turned around in the crash. And of course my chain was off too and all in all I'd estimate it took me about 3 minutes to get back on my bike. After the crash though i was a bit skittish ... and scared to take the corners too fast. A few deep breaths and a bit more riding to gain confidence in the 'ice mud' again ... it took me another lap (20 minutes) to feel 'back to normal' and start catching some of the women around me. I climbed back to 3rd place but couldn't catch any more women before the race was over. At an hour or so it was a pretty quick race!!!
After the race my toes were top priority b/c they were so frozen ... in to the warm wooly socks and hikers and out of the bike clothes. The next day I really felt my 'ice slide' ... my whole left side was pretty swollen and sore! I must have been flying :)
