This past weekend was the SERC Tsali race in Bryson City, NC. And...where do I begin? I had to work Saturday until noon so I knew I wasn't going to be able to make it to pre-ride. Jeff was doing the Chickamauga GA Cup road race, so I thought I would swing by and see the end of his race before making my way to the race. That's where my crazy luck started.... I was driving and I reached into my backseat to grab a water bottle, and realized I had a few ants on my hand. I pulled over on the side of the road and saw that my cooler full of food had been a home to ants, and apparently the ice in the cooler, made them want to come out of the hollow plastic(there weren't any ants in sight when I was filling up my cooler). I used bodyspray and febreeze to kill the ones that were in my car, and stopped at the dollar general and bought a new cooler and tossed the other one in the trash (not salvageable).
My next "issue" was that I should not have relied on my GPS to get me to Jeff's race. I drove up a one car wide gravel road up a mountain, that was one foot from the edge with a straight drop down. I was terrified! I don't think I have ever been that scared in my car! And there was no way to turn around. I safely arrived, but missed the end of his race which was disappointing.
Then we were off to my race! It was a late start. We got to Tsali around 10 pm and the campground was full. Luckily I had seen a sign for camping about 5 miles down the road. I am still a rookie camper, and let's just say that I froze my ass off! But, the campsite owners make their traditional pancake breakfast for its campers! Yum!!!! I had brought muffins, but who can pass up pancakes?!
Ok..now about the race. I got second in this race last year, and the girl that beat me was there. I quickly found out she wasn't going to be my competition this time, but some different faces. When they said go Kym and Anina took off in front, and I prepared myself for what was going to be 28 miles of torture! There was one expert girl in front of me and once the trail started to kick up a tad I passed her. I stayed in the lead probably the first 15 miles of the race. Two girls were right on my wheel and it was a game of cat and mouse between Diana and myself. I was definitely faster on the climbs, but she was alot faster descending (she told me at one point she was a pro...she's fast). The end of the first lap had lot of descending and that it where she ended up passing me.
Then in the second I was starting to feel really fatigued. I had felt great the first lap, but this lap the tank was empty. I was later passed by a second rider near the beginning of the second lap. Bummer....but I'm still thrilled with 3rd considering the expert field was 22 women! And...there were some other super tough women there!!!
Recap...1st place girl could descend fast. 2nd place girl could climb faster. Me...faster than last year, and ready to go faster!!
And lastly, I want to throw in a Greg Lemond quote, "It never gets easier, you just go faster."
