VisitPA 12-Hour Relay Race Report

Donna ROCKED AND ROLLED over logs! Our duo Team placed 2nd! Yeah baby... We're getting a kick out of that. We were beat by two of the fastest women racers on the race circuit this year with a little bit too much testosterone. Ha! How could they! We both had our apprehensions going into this -- me 'cause it was my first "official" (finished) race since my accident a year ago coupled with my jigglyness being the jigglyiest its been in 5 years (even my boobs are jiggling now -- they never jiggled!:)); and Donna for several reasons, but mainly because of the thousand or so logs on this course. We both opted (through Donna's suggestion) to go without the security blankets - the camelbak. This is my first ever I rode without it and tools -- not even a gel stuck in my shorts. The course is short enough and centralized enough that if we flat or have a problem, it's a 5 minute or so walk back to the parking lot. "How liberating!" It was nice without that pack hanging on the back. And the race? It turns out we both had fun. Kuhn downed a couple more trees and added some new sections with a little more twisting and turning and log hopping. The course is all about sharp turns in trees -- that's what he terms "technical". (I continue to think of "technical" as rocks and hard, long rocky climbs... roadies like to think of "technical" as smooth trail with turns :)). Donna did 4 of the 7-mile loops and loved it. I know she had a 5th lap in her, but mention the word "beer" and it makes her and most mountain bikers stop and smell the real roses. Most logs were rideable and her 29er helped her over them. She also mentioned going to Ray's this winter helped her out too. I did 3 laps..... and struggled. My racing fitness just ain't there anymore. I thought I was racing race pace, but my times proved differently. It was a pace much faster than I've been riding this year so far, and I guess that pace wore me out by lap three. The farm was cool, as usual. Very light turnout, but I saw a couple BASHERs that are already getting psyched for the BASH; Matt Landis, and Dan Killingsworth. And of course all the old racing buds were there too -- Janice Morris, Mike laub, Sally McClain, Lorretta and Fernando Torres, Zachster (who, by the way, was setting an AWESOME example for the kids and NOT drinking this time -- niiiccccee Zach!), and the Visitpa guys whom of course were killing the course and all the other teams. I saw an interesting event for 2010 -- the Trans-sylvania Mountain Bike Epic. Kuhn is putting it on in cooperation with the PA Wilds and the state. Its a multi-day staged mountain bike race. But I'm not doing it -- I'm not racing! :)