Hard week...but a payoff

After a very hard week at work (I still have my job, but many friends were affected) and the added stress 3 races in 8 days, I was elated to finish on top this Sunday.

I have come to accept and enjoy the atypical MNSCS course that we start our series with. There are no big climbs, no, rock gardens and barely any roots, but there are wicked corners and you have to be on the gas the whole time.

My plan this year has been to race into fitness, so the race Sunday was to be my longest continuous "hard" effort of the year (previous races only ~1 hour). I just am not that motivated to go out and hammer by myself very often and with ~30 races on the schedule, I shouldn't need to.

There was no prologue loop this year (??) so the hole shot was pretty key. I went for it and got it. From there, Doug and I started to separate from the field. On one of the twisties I slipped out, and he took the lead for the rest of the first lap. Starting the second lap, he slowed down letting me know it was my turn to pull=) The challenge of the day was to see who could lay it over in the loose sandy corners the farthest without going down.

Before kicking off lap 3, I turned to him to ask him if he wanted "it" (the lead), but he didn't so I pushed it through he tight and twisty portion of the course. A gap started to open and it grew over the next 3 laps. I was able to roll home solo for the win with the legs still feeling pretty good. At the finish, Tegan was glad to see Daddy, but even more happy that I had some "juice", aka sport drink, left in my bottle=)

The pics above are all from Skinnyski.com...they do a great job of capturing the action!

Thanks for reading.

-b