Pickett's Charge... buns of fun, I mean TONS of fun.

Stick boy (Brett Nichols) and Heavy T (Tim) measuring up after breakfast.

Amazingly, Tim and I were 'home' for yet another great race in Oregon that we had never done. We headed to Bend for the weekend and were treated to zippy singletrack, fun with friends and good times racing among friends. Or racing against no one, like I did. Tim had a flat early on in the first lap, and after much debate in his head, a few miles of riding easy, he decided to finish hard and finished 6th. His flat took over 10 minutes, mind you, and had I not been behind him with extra air, he may still be out there.

Hard to lose when you are the only one! Whew. Glad I won.

My race was a bit different. It was a race against me. Not the most exciting race, but I asked to do 2 laps (39 miles) since I was the only one, and after the first 19.5, I questioned my sanity and actually stopped to consider not doing the second and going up and riding another trail. I had already 'won'. Racing against yourself is no fun. It's really hard to push. The only times I got motivated was when people finally passed me or I started catching them. Funny how that works. But it was a ton of fun and hanging out with friends. I actually won the Oregon XC Classic Series with my whole 3 races I was able to do this year. I really hope to see more women out there. On a positive note, there were some new faces in the expert field! Always good.

I couldn't bring myself to stand on the podium alone again.
Thank you Oregon race promoters for a job well done!!! We are very lucky to be mountain bikers in this state. Hard to believe there aren't many more races and summer has just arrived.