Tri-Peaks Challenge

After Maplelag I headed over to Arkansa. After sitting in an airplane at Denver Airport for 2 hours while we were on ground hold because of lightning and they had to reroute us over to arkansa, I finally made it into Fayetteville at 3am...UGH! I was excited to see my teammates the next morning but at the same time I felt like one does after pulling an all nighter tring to get a term paper done that is due that morning...not that I ever waited till the last munute to do anything. HA!

After speaking with my three coaches....Don't ask, it's a long complicated story, but heck 3 awesome coaches for the price of one( I hope they are not reading this) who can beat that! Well, anyways it was a unanimous discision among them that I was to sit this race out. After months of racing and not being able to recall the last time i had a rest week, I was ordered off the bike. Which honestly..I was really sort of excited about.


So I played swauny for the week not only for my teammates but I also got the amazing opportunity to help out and hang out a little bit with Sue Haywood. I don't want to sound like one of those little star stuck googly fans, especially since there is the possiblity that she might be reading this....(HI Sue) but she is an extremely nice and mellow cyclist and it was awesome to get the opportunity to hang out with out the stress of racing. Oh and I am sending Trek a picture of you racing my Kestrel TT! Just kidding I don't even have one.


Anyways, It was a fun week of jamming around the race course a hundred miles an hour to try and get from one feed zone to the next and throw water bottles at my teammates. The best part was listening to Sirius Chill(a station on Sirus satalitte radio which helped pass many hours spent in a car) , watching others suffer, swimming and attempting to shoot basketballs!


I also had a great time hanging with the other team managers in the feed zones and hearing the differant stories. Not all was lost with this trip...It actually turned out to be an amazing networking opportunity for me! Plus, believe it or not Arkansa is actually a very beautiful State!

Maplelag...

I have to honestly say that the only reason I decided to come to the race in Maplelag, MN was because I was going to have to land in Fargo, North Dakota...You Betcha! And to top things off in the Ohare airport waiting for the same flight was Curly Nelson, one of the original Harlem Globe Trotters! How do I know it was him....I was over hearing a conversation that he was having with someone else. Eaves droping...the most valuable trait I acquired from my mother.

I got to stay the night in Fargo at a very posh hotel next to the airport...

Only in Fargo can you get a hotel from with full kitchen and bed for $60 a night. I then headed over to Maplelag the next morning in my kick ass rental car...Dodge Charger! So ghetto you don't even know. I felt like I stuck out like sore thumb in good ole minnesota.

Upon arriving at the Maplelag a resort I was blown away. This place is absolutely beautiful... cabins and coboose cars to sleep in, on a goregeous lake in a nicely wooded area. After a hearty lunch that the lodge fed us my teammate and I headed out pre-ride the course.

The course was amazing...some of the best soil I think I have ever ridin' in, nice and tacky! It had some great power climbs and technical steep descents. So much fun!

I also had the wonderful opportunity of meeting almost the entire family of my teammate Sue! They are a great bunch, almost as sarcastic and smart astic as my family...I felt like I was at home!

This morning we met the rest of the crew for breakfast, they do it family style here and everyone in the lodge eats together for all the meals. It was a very relaxing atmostphere with very few riders here and the scenery being as gorgeous as it was. A heck of alot better than fontucky.

After breakfast I went out to warm-up, did my usual..but the legs just didn't feel that great..lacking power. But I figured they should open up eventually, that or I am about to start my lovely time of the month.

Once I started racing I thought the later must be true, that or I am lacking something in my training. I had a pretty good start especially since there were only 7 of us so I had front row start, but that was all I had. About 20 minutes into the race, my legs pretty much shut down, as well as my head. Once I was in last place I pretty much decided that I was just going to try and enjoy the day, get some points by finishing the race and I even won some money! Money for last place!

This was again not one of my better days, and was concluded with my first drug testing experience! First they attach a guy to you like a nat immediately following the racce, who is instructed to follow you around until you get into the drug testing room. Then they fill out some paper work on you and if you don't have to pee (that being the case) you get to sit around supervised and try and drink as much liquids to get thinks moving, fortunately I wasn't by myself and had some great conversation with Kelli Emmet and another girl who for some reason I can never remember her name. Finally you let them know that you have to pee, they give you a cup and follow you into the bathroom and observe your peeing session, to make sure you don't have any hidden pee in your shorts or shirt. Then they have you put it in the offical bottles and check the pH and the dilution. It's a really weird process, but they try and make it flawless to you can not say that they tainted anything, you inspect the bottles, packaging, all that fun stuff.

Now to try and get a little vacation before I head over to Arkanasa! I can't wait to see Amy and Sammie!

Fontucky NMBS #3

Everyone has a bad day and this was definitley mine. I had a great start and finally was able to clip in right off the bat...but that was about all that went well. After slowly slipping backwards on the first climb followed by multiple crashes in the deep rutted powerdery descents...at least the crashes didn't hurt too bad, except for when my bike came crashing down on top of me. Followed by more lose of places, followed by more crashes.

What can one say other than it happens to everyone at some time or another. The heart rate doesn't respond, the legs don't respond, the brain doesn't respond. It becomes hard to focus and hard to stay motivated...all you can do is keep telling yourself not to give up and to finish the damn race! I know in the overall skeem of things 32nd isn't such a bad place, but when you feel like crap....it's a whole other story! But you have to pick yourself up, dust your self off and start all over again.

NMBS #2 Cross Country TOP 15!!!

I have mentioned that it was hot in the Santa Ynez valley? At least today it cooled down maybe a couple of degrees, but the wind was not going to let us off that easy.

Again, with a decent start position on the far right side second row, the announcer sends us off...but no one hears him...he does is again...still no response..third times the charm...and whamo! there's a big pile up on the left side of the start group! Thank god I was on the right! I high tail it the heck out of there and am immediately in the top 15 position. We get through the first third of the race course which is fairly flat and I feel good until we turn to start the first climb...crap I went out too hard, I lose a couple of spots but talk myself up and convince myself that I will recover on the first decsent. Sure enough we come through the feed zone and I can hear friends "Kick ass Emily" "your doing awesome". I feel my legs start to come back to me. A Canadian Trek girl comes around me, she seems very strong and a good wheel to sit on, especially when we hit the head windy sections. I glue myself to her wheel and sure enough we are picking girls off again. We catch on to another group, containing one of my teammates Jenna and an ex bearnakeder Judy. We glue ourselves to their wheels and make them do the work. I am going to play this race smart! They keep trying to attack, but obviously don't realize the repercussions that the wind can have on you. Eventually, they all start fading away except my teammate Jenna. We come through the start finish and have only half a lap to go (the second lap was cut short due to time and head constraints). I come up next to Jenna and we can see a small group in front of us. Using my amazing roady skills i tell her we should do quick pulls and we can bring them in. Sure enough as we are about to hit the climb, we pick them off. Jenna gets a good burst of energy and breaks away from me but I keep plugging as hard as I can, legs still feel great! I will not let anyone catch me.

I head into the second to last turn to home and there is guy there " your doing awesome, no one is behind you and your in 13th!" 13th!!!!!! Holy crap! I drive it into the finish line with a shit eating grin on my face to see my buddy Ray with a cold towel and a gatorade! He wipes my face and says " you kicked ass!" I know and I still can't believe it! That was the best darn gatorade ever!

NMBS #2 Short Track

All I can say is dust, dust, dust, more dust, hot, hot, boiling hot, and did I say dust. The with a nice starting positon in the second row the gun goes of and we are all off like a bat out of hell. The only catch is there is such a crazy dust cloud that went up that you literally could not see the ground in front of you! I found the lovely colors of blue and yellow ( luna chix) and just stuck to her wheel for the start of the race, because I figured it would be a stable wheel to follow. In between the inflation of 50 pounds of dirt and going all out and not being able to see this race was going to be great!

I was with the lead group for the first lap or so which got pretty strung out pretty fast...all you could do was figure everyone was suffering as much as you were, especially when on about the fourth lap coming towards the start finish I started dry heaving solely do to the fact I was inhaling nothing but dirt. But I kept plugging away and found my teammate Sue's wheel and we pushed and shoved to stay in the race! At one point I had my head down coming through the start finish and figured they were probably going to pull us when I saw the THREE laps to go sign!! We were going to last this whole darn dust fest! Due to my impatience I pulled my teammate around as we attempted to catch the group in front of us, which unfortunately didn't happen. On the last lap we come through the final turn and in "three, two, one! Sue is coming around me!" She took 17th and me 18th. Three major accomplishments for this race...I felt great, I didn't crash, and I wasn't pulled! Not bad for my third Pro short track.