It wasn't the race i wanted ... i had to sit out due to stomach issues. Darn electrolytes. But i had a great pit crew and great company (the Canadian boys and girls were camped out beside us) ... and amazing pumpkin pie (if i must say so myself) to get me thru the race. It was great to see old friends and meet new friends. I just love that about mountain biking ... people are so friendly :)
The race got off to a good start and i got in a solid 12 hours with good pit times and amazing weather. I was eating 2 salts per lap ... apparenly should have been 3 or 4. It seems insane how much of those things i need :) I sat out with stomach cramps and related dehydration issues after my midnight lap, where i returned a frozen human popsicle. Who know that hyperthermia could be an issue in May in Spokane? Wow, it got cold super fast!!! It litteraly took me an hour to stop shivering. After that i played head-games with myself and debated on when i could go back on my bike. My criteria was that if i drank something, it wouldn't come back out 20 minutes later. Yeah, it took 6 hours to meet that. Perhaps my bar shouldn't be so high ;-)
I had a solid 6 hours of racing in the AM but couldn't catch 3rd place so settled for 4th and more pumpkin pie.
I am excited though, because i have a new energy drink to try out - Infinit. The Canadian boys swear by it and the sodium and potassium levels (the electrolytes i seem to have issue with) are promising. Look out STP and Worlds!!! Woot!
Oh, and of course, no race report is done without 'the numbers':
Miles ridden: ~200
Ft climbed: ~24,000
Hours of riding: 18
Crashes: 0
