Chequamegon 40 - 1st Place Ladies Singlespeed

Chequamegon 40 Saturday September 19, 2009
by: Regina Campbell

he Chequamegon 40 started out for me on Friday morning, picking up The Dad at the airport in MKE. We started our trip with a much needed stop at Alterra for coffee and breakfast and then we made our way to the north woods. With a pit stop in Eau Claire for lunch we made it to Telemark before registration opened. The Dad and I hung out in the lobby drinking beer and waiting for the line to move. I got all squared away and then it was time for dinner. We were lucky enough to say with some of the fine Alterra Folks (Anna, Sanjay, Ari, Christine, Ty, and Anna’s parents). It was a nice set up with the added bonus of being right at the finish!

Race Day come and I ate my usual race day breakfast. No stress of getting the bike on the line as I had that taken care of for me (thanks Chris!). Once at the start the big task came with finding my bike. I had a pretty nice starting position…about 20 feet back. I was getting really nervous and was basically feeling like I was going to vomit right there on the start line. Last year I had 4 flats and was really just hoping to not have bike issues this year. I set a goal for myself to finish somewhere between 3hours to 3 hours and 20 minutes.

The lead out to the race was better than the year before, more controlled until we were on 77 and then it went full speed. Or should I say everyone else went full speed and I spun like crazy. I was running 2:1 and knew once I hit Rosie’s field I’d make up a lot of time. The course was dry and dusty…really dusty….

Within the first 10 miles I made up a lot of ground, I was pushing myself to go harder, faster, stay hydrated, keep fueled because it was going to be long race. I saw the miles pass and still felt good. I got to OO and saw my split time of 1:12 and felt that was a pretty good time, but pushed myself to go harder. I got my bottle hand up from The Dad and proceeded to drop the bottle. He did great and race it back up to me without much time lost at all. I kept going and pushed even harder. I remember getting through fire tower hill and then seeing the mile count decrease and thinking how great I was feeling.

I mad the finish climb and headed into the bowl to the finish line. I knew I felt good, had a great race, and would be happy with however my finish was. I rolled to the finish, heard my dad cheering, and saw the time….3:03:06, I smiled so big.

I waited around at the finish hoping to see my name on the big board, but gave up after standing around for 30 minutes. After getting cleaned up it was time to celebrate! I headed down to check out the results, having heard I came in first I wanted my own proof….scored my receipt with my 1st place ladies singlespeed and 861 overall.

Thanks to Amy D for the pictures, John Senkerik for the pull after fire tower hill, Chris and Jeff for making sure my bike got on the line, The Dad for the support, the Alterra Crew for the best place to stay, and both the Alterra and Hayes crew for the good times, and thanks to everyone else who cheered me on and was on hand for the good times that were had over the weekend!

~mtbVegan