Peres Family Adventures: May 2011

I have several teammates who have raced 8-hour and 24-hour solo races and team races. I have always been in awe of them and wanted to try it myself. I decided to go for the 8-hour solo first and see if I could handle that. I may still do a 24-hour race someday...maybe. I was pretty nervous about this race and knew I'd have to train quite a bit to be able to do it. I did several long 4-5 hour rides plus my usual training. It paid off. I felt pretty ready when the day came. Steve and the boys were going to be my pit crew, but Steve ended up having to work and so I asked my good friend Julie to be my crew. She did a great job! I had food, water, and Cytomax ready every lap. I spent very little time in the pit and just kept going as hard as I could. There had been a lot of snow just a few weeks before that. The snow had melted, but the conditions were really muddy and so the course had to be changed to fire roads instead of single track trail. It made for a very boring, monotonous day. A lot of people dropped out, but I was determined to finish. There was a lot of climbing and then a few long downhill sections. Not much in between. The course still had some really muddy sections which made it tricky and mucked up your chain like crazy. I tried to clean and lube my chain every few laps, but by lap 6 my bike just wasn't happy. I kept getting chain suck, but one time got it so badly that my chain was jammed and I couldn't get it out. I had to run with my bike in my bike shoes about 1/2 mile to the pit to get some help. It was determined that I had two bent chain rings. I had to either drop out of the race or ride only in the big chain ring. That meant pushing really hard gears going uphill. I decided to go for it. It was HARD, but I was determined. It actually made me faster in some sections. I kept at it and finished 14 laps total. All that hard work and determination paid off because I took 1st place in the Expert Women's category. Yay!!! Thanks to Julie for her awesome pit skills, thanks to the guys at Mad Cat for helping with my bike, and thanks to Steve and the boys for their love and support. I think I'll do it again next year!!!

Cleaning my chain with my water bottle between laps.

Eating one of Julie's awesome turkey sandwiches as I head out for another lap. Lovin' the muddy stripe up my rear end.

Eating on the run again.

Do you love my brown socks?

My poor dirty bike.

Finished! Thank goodness!

Julie and me after the race.

Julie did everything for me from that point on. Fed me, helped clean me up, loaded my bike. I was pretty spent.

The podium girls. Erin Upchurch took 1st in her women's single speed category, Jen Brandt took 2nd in her women's sport category, and I took 1st in women's expert category. Go Mad Cat girls!