Monday, June 2, 2014

Yeti Beti Race Report!

So it's been a while since I posted here.  Haven't been riding much either.  It's been raining a LOT and my drive kind of fizzeled after Battle the Bear, but the Beti Bike Bash was yesterday and I did it anyway.

But wait, let me back track a little.  Wednesday, Nancy from the Dirt Divas finished my bike fit since my new stem and my orthotics came in from Jinji Cycles.  We put some pretty big arch supports in but my knees no longer come in on each pedal stroke which I think is a really good thing  We switched the 80mm stem for the 65mm stem.  I also got new Ergon grips but I haven't put those on yet.  They are green to match my bike.

That evening I went for my first Dirt Divas social ride of the year at Marshal Mesa in Boulder.  I wasn't one of the very slowest this time!  For the past 2 years I always have been.  This time I kept up with the medium group.  I was pretty proud of myself.  I AM getting better at this whole mountain biking thing

Alright, so back to the Beti Bikebash.  Jeremy (the husband) had to work.  I had decided to do the Beginner's race, which was only 8 miles even though I wanted to do the longer 12 mile Sport because the Sport overlapped with the kids race.  Skyla had really enjoyed it at Battle the Bear, and I wanted to give Arianna another chance at it.  I was going to have my dad help with the kids but then he had to go to Utah for the funeral of one of his uncles (who passed at 94).  I then called our 14 year old babysitter and made arrangements for her to come over Saturday morning.  Yeah.  The race was Sunday.  I realized my mistake the next day and had to call and cancel (she's LDS).  After freaking out for a bit, I called my good friend Kortney and she said she could help me out.  She met us all at the race at 7:30am so the kids could watch me.

Now the Dirt Divas have a race team as well as a social club.  I am not part of the race team, just the social club. I didn't order a new jersey this year either.  But Nancy had invited me to come hang out at the team tent (not sure if she realized the circus would be coming along however) so I wore last year's jersey.  When I asked if it was alright to wear it, she said sure, but that she had extras of the new ones I could buy and the new ones are super pretty, so I did.

So anyway, the race.  The Beginners started at 8am, with the Never Evers starting a few minutes later.  My age group alone was 26 ladies with 6 Dirt Divas!  And that was just the Beginners.  I ended up kind of in the back of the pack.  Passed a few people before the first climb (including one of the other Dirt Divas who raced it on a Fat Bike wearing a tutu, when she's probably not even 5ft tall, awesome).  A few people had to walk the first short climb which was very different from the other race I did.  More ladies walked the 2nd, one right in front of me.  I had to stop and really wanted to get pedaling again, which took me a few tries and a few shouts of "I want to pedal it!" to get people out of my way.  This is my "home park".  I've gone up these hills literally 10 times this year (I know, Strava told me so).  I know I can climb these hills.  Passed a few people there.  So first lap, 4 miles, 21.5 minutes, 11.2 mph average speed.  Yup.  11.2mph.  Remember how hard I was working for 10mph?


On to lap 2.  Passed a few more ladies on the flats.  Started to get passed by a few ladies from the older age groups who started behind me (but this was the first time I got passed, which was nice).  Got back to the first steep climb, which had been washed out a bit recently, parts of it in a nice deep V instead of a relatively thick single track.  Suddenly I had a hard time staying in the bottom of the V, and fell.  I just fell going up hill on a hill I've climbed 10 times this year.  A few more people passed me.  I got pedaling again, made it up and down, then around to the next climb, which I made it up.  Then going down the next hill there was a girl down.  I slowed down and suddenly fell for no apparent reason.  Got back up, had to take a sharp right at the bottom and really had to slow down to get control and not fall again.  I apologized to the woman behind me and let her pass.  Then realized what was happening.  My front tire was flat.  I don't have tubless but I have Orange Seal in my tubes.  I stopped, tried to throw a bit of air in it, but didn't want to spend a whole lot of time pumping up 29" tires.  Tried to ride but just had no control.  I walked it up the big gravel hill that led to the finish (taking 3.5 minutes instead of the 1.5 it took me the first lap).  At the top of the hill I decided to stop and put more air in it so I could ride through the finish.  49 minutes total.  22.5 minutes first lap.  27 minutes 2nd lap.

So, I was disappointed.  Looking back I should have tried to fill it up as much as possible the first stop.  It might have sealed back up and been good to go.  Probably wouldn't have taken me the 5 minutes to fill it that it cost me to but a little bit of air in it, walk, and then but more air in it.  Oh well.  Getting flats is part of racing and riding I guess.  I finished 24 of 26, might have finished around 12th.

The kids did the kids race (Kortney had to take off after my race), which was just a little circle in the weeds (not sure how any of the kids made it out without flats but I guess those super heavy kids tires are pretty tough) about 100m.  There was no one there to start it officially so the kids just rode around in circles for a while before the parents decided to organize an official start.  A gal showed up with ribbons for them all at the end which said "If you had fun, you won" which was pretty cool.  Skyla did 14 laps, and Arianna did 12.  Declan DNFed...  got pouty and said he wanted a bike with pedals, which he can't ride yet.

We stayed a bit longer than originally planned so I could be a part of the big Dirt Divas photo (we had a woman racing expert).  We got to watch the pro women race.  Those ladies do like 12 minute laps around that course and 5 of them!  Skyla took some interest in a summer mountain biking girls camp, so now we've started looking at real geared mountain bikes for her and Arianna.

 
Unfortunately we stayed about 10 minutes past Declan's threshold for good behavior and he had a epic melt down on the way to the car (these instances are where I am glad Striders only weigh 8lbs).  The girls did a really good job riding their bikes down some of the hills on the dirt.  The other Dirt Divas were awesome about the kids, very understanding, there were several other kids there too (however most of their fathers were there to help).  Sometimes at Jeremy's races I think people just wonder why I bring them (or even birthed them to begin with), so an all women's event was pretty nice in that aspect too.