Back to the beginning: Gloucester, MA, October 3-4, 2009

Although it was not the wisest thing to do, I could not resist. I traveled to the east coast after my last whirlwind trip for the weekend to participate in "east coast worlds." Gloucester was my first national race back in 2006. Wendy and I went when it was one of the USGP's. I was psyched to finish in the top 20 back then, starting from the back row. Fast forward three years. I had a front row call up and was not totally satisfied with my top 5 results. Man, times have changed. But one thing that has not changed is that the Gloucester course is super fun, the setting is amazing and I still love racing my bike.

Saturday was CX weather. The rain did fall. LOTS of mud. It was a super fun race, even though some sections became runs (not my favorite) and the actual run up was new to me. Huge steep slippery slog. All in all, the race was pretty good. I was in the front group. Fell on the slippery "S" turns while running. Dropped back to 5th and definitely felt the 8 hours of travel the day prior in my legs. But not to worry, tomorrow was another day.

Sunday the skies had cleared, the course was tacky and I knew it was going to be fast. I had a not so good start, getting crowded out after I didn't jump quick enough at the whistle and quickly got back to the front. All was going well and 5 of us had made separation from the group. In the 'S' turns however, as I crested the top of the first one, I got t-boned by a fellow racer. She ran into me so hard, I could not imagine it not being on purpose. Of course, it was said to not be intentional, but you would have to be blind to run into someone that is in front of you that hard without yielding. I guess that is how some people race. So, moving on, I was taken out. Shocked. I picked myself back up and then ran around over the barriers only to remount after the run up and find my chain had also come off. Off the bike, chain back on, I let my anger fuel my race. I chased like I have never chased. I wish I could have been using that energy off the front instead of preserving my race. But I worked my way back up to third and with half a lap to go, the unthinkable happened. I had a front flat. At least I was close enough to the pit to preserve a 4th place finish that day, but it is a long way to travel to get bad luck out of the way.

My awesome pit person, Sharon Anderson Sandavol from PDX. Thanks again, Sharon!!!

So, now with sore ribs, I head out to Ohio. I think I have been gone more than home lately, so sorry for the blog delay. Focusing on the positive of the trip, I enjoyed my host family (Thank you Dave, Althea & Colt) stay and seeing a bit of the outskirts of Boston, it was awesome to see the ocean, ride in the mud, see some folks I haven't seen for a while and when it comes right down to it, it was still fun racing my bike!

Gloucester has nothing on Portland! Saturday's rain made it a ghost town. There were more people on Sunday, but I am sure Alpenrose was double or triple.