Southern Girl Up North

I will pick up where I left off after camp...After I got back from camp, I left again for Wisconsin on a tuesday after I had returned from camp on sunday. My team mate Anina picked me up here in Knoxville, and we were off to the big race. We drove and drove and drove. As we drove north we began to see corn...lots and lots of corn. All we saw for hours was corn! I never knew there was so much corn in the world. I really did not know.

After many more hours of corn, and a night in a hotel, Anina and I finally made it to Wisconsin. (America's Dairyland) We were glad to be out of the car and riding the SWEET course. I was glad to be on my bike for sure, but I was slightly annoyed with my bottom bracket...I had no idea how bad it truly was! We got done riding, and we headed to the hotel to meet Kym and Mark. On the way, we stopped and grabbed some dinner at the Pioneer Family Restraunt. Interesting little place. I ordered a wonderful thing called deep fried cheese curds. I was able to check cheese curds off of my Wisconsin to-d0 list. YES! They were delicious. After dinner we arrived at the hotel and saw Mark and Kym's awesome Packers theme room and hit the hay.

The next morning we were all very happy because we were able to sleep in. YAAY! We had a nice morning of breakfast and love time on Emily's bike. (the bottom bracket) Kym took it apart, and we discovered that my bearings were totally seized! Uh Oh. Kym got them all cleaned out though, and everything was fine. I felt soooo much better riding after that! haha.

The next day was race day, and I knew that both me and my Trek 9.8 were totally ready. I took an ice bath and wore my compression tights. Those things made me feel very prepared in my mind and in my legs. I got a great night's sleep and was ready to go morning of the race!

Mark and I went early to set up camp for the team. It was fun to help him set up! After getting the tents up, we got ourselves ready and began to warm up for the race. This is always when my nerves really get going! I was riding around, and my legs felt pretty good! Yaaay! Finally it was time to line up! I found one other junior expert girl. Turns out there was one other. We waited to start, and I was getting really nervous! Finally they called all of the women experts to the line! They started all the age groups together. I was not in a very good position at the line, but when we went off I started passing people like crazy! It was a little bit of a strange feeling for me! We were climbing and I just kept gaining ground. I was feeling good. We got onto some single track in the woods after a while, and I passed yet another fairly large group of girls. I was feeling so good. I just kept telling myself I had to keep it up for the rest of the race. I guess I did that fairly well, because hardly anyone passed me, and I ended up with 7th over all! I was soooo happy.

I also won my age category, and that gives me a spot at Junior World Championships in Canada this fall! How EXCITING! I am so happy. It was a really great race trip. I had so much fun!