Tall blonde girl on a bike: Point 2 Point 2012

Was this race hard? Yes. Was it epic? Yes. Will I do it again next year? Yes. Most likely. Probably.

The day started off slightly more stressful than anticipated. I realized the night before the race that I'd forgotten to bring bike shorts. How could you forget something that important? Don't know, but I did. I quickly called my 3B Yoga teammate and asked if she had extra shorts. Thank heavens she did! We sure didn't want to drive back down to Provo and back at 10pm.

Woke up in the morning to rain. We stayed in our utility trailer which makes everything sound so much LOUDER. When I walked outside it was still pretty bad and the lightening was lighting up the entire valley. I started planning my day and it did NOT include racing P2P. We were told by the race director to stay in our cars and hold tight. Race was officially postponed until 8am and they were going to make a decision at 7am. At 6:45 it completely cleared up and was looking like it was going to be a beautiful day. We all took a vote. I voted to race that day, but KC Holley and my husband told me I'd better vote to race the following day. Long story short, director made the call to race that day.

Panic panic rush rush. Get to the starting line with no warmup what-so-ever. Realize that I didn't have my bottle of electrolytes. Oh well. Too late now. If you don't know anything about P2P just know that it's supposed to be a 78 mile mountain bike race with 14,000 feet of climbing. There are only 3 aid stations so you're riding for about 3 hours between each station. To not have those calories from my sports drink made me a little worried. I should mention that because of epic rain that morning we were going to cut 10 miles off. YAY!

Started racing and was right behind Bobby which was awesome. About 30 minutes into the race my chain started having problems and would suddenly freeze up. This would launch me over the front of my bars and I'd have to pull over to let a bunch of guys by. It became so bad that I couldn't pedal at all. Bobby was going around a switch back so he just happened to see me struggling and called out. I told him my problems and he stopped and waited for me. He's my knight in shining armor. I ran my bike up to him and he sprayed the chain off with his water and then lubed it. Good to go. Then it was trying to pass a bunch of guys back for the next 45 minutes. Finally got into a good rhythm and was about to pass a couple of girls when we came up to a T in the road and I knew the course was supposed to turn right but it was marked to turn left and the other girls turned left. We dropped down a really steep hill for a half mile when I hear someone yelling my name. Wrong way. I yelled at the other girls and struggled to get back up the steep hill. Then it was back to passing all the people I'd just worked to pass. Oh well that's mountain bike racing eh?

The trails were in a amazing condition, super tacky and fast. I was feeling great. It was overcast and there was fog that made everything a little eery, but wow was I having a great time out there. Bobby caught up to me and it was really fun to have him there.

First aid station I stuffed down a banana, grabbed some other snacks AND my electrolyte drink and switched out my camel back and was off. Gabe with 3B Yoga was there to do support and boy was I glad to have him. He was so organized and efficient. That really saved me some time.

The next section until the 2nd aid station is just long. They have you climb about 2,000 feet and then descend and then CLIMB 2,000 feet and the DESCEND and then CLIMB 2,000...you get the idea. I was forcing food down the whole way and trying not to throw it all up, which I'm proud to say I only threw up once and it was just a little.

2nd feed station was the best! Joan and Steve Mower were there along with Gabe. Joan had me sit down so she could massage my achilles on my left foot. It had been painful for the last 2 hours.

I finally left the feed zone knowing the hardest part of the race was coming up. The flat to 4% grade section. My body feels best and passes the most people on grades that are 8% and steeper. Amazingly my achilles didn't hurt. I was needing a pick-me-up tho and so I downed a 5 hour energy. Best idea ever! I think it only effected me for about an hour but it was AMAZING! The last part was just trying not to die coming down the crappy last downhill.
Made it down safely and Came in 5th place pro women!

Made $700!

So so happy for these results and for everyone who helped me along the way.

Side note: I was nauseous for about 2 days, but I still think it was worth it :)

THANK YOU 3B YOGA FOR ALL THE SUPPORT AND FOR SUCH A FUN YEAR OF RACING!!!!