WORS #11 mtbVegan

WORS #11 Wolf River Rendezvous Sunday September 27, 2009
by: Regina Campbell

We pulled into the race in enough time to see the Sport Start. Then I headed back to the car to get dressed in the many layers I brought with me. My entire goal in the race was to finish better than my lowest scoring race so far (hello bonus points!). With a simple goal in mind I headed out for my warm up. Rolled to the start line and managed a call up (I’m always surprised when I get one!). On Don’s “GOOOoooo!!!” we were off. I had a pretty awesome start for myself…I kept thinking how I was just behind the lead pack. We hit the first hill and my lunges got tight and about 4 women past me. Darnit!

I made it by Elizabeth and Brenda before the first singletrack section and caught another about 3/4 of the way through the lap. I started feeling better and like a could really breath on lap 2. I also remember thinking how happy I was that we only had to do 3 laps! The open sections of the course was crazy bumpy and the singletrack was greasy (thanks to the rain). On lap 2 I caught April and was able to keep some distance…I knew Karlene had to be just ahead as I had seen her by April a few minutes earlier. I kept pushing myself to catch her.

On lap 3 we started getting lapped by the top Cat 1 men and that got a little interesting. I saw Ron coming and one other guy behind him before a section of singletrack…Ron slide by and I said “Go, Go, Go” to the other guy…well, it was Russell and he said to me “No, you Go Go Go!” so I did.

He rode with me for a bit and that was awesome. He pulled away once we hit the last open section and I rolled into the finish proud of myself. I had a blast out there, did better than I thought finishing 8th out of 13 overall and 5th in my age group. I survived, I could breath (sort of), and I had fun. Nice!

The course was bumpy, but I can see it will be fun come next year once it’s been ridden more and smoothed out a bit. It’s amazing how quickly they pulled the race together and it was a great time! Thanks to those who cheered me on and kept me pedaling up the blasted hill…it hurt!