SERC FL

This past weekend was my first race of the season. Kym, Emily, Anina, and myself made the journey down to beautiful Gainesville, FL. I was really nervous about this race because not only was it the first race of the season, but it also marks a year for me racing in the pro/expert women's field. Last year I accomplished my goal of having competitive results against the other expert women. But, it was going to be interesting to see about this year. This past fall I took about 2 months off the bike!!! And...we had the coldest winter in TN that I can remember! I trained the best I could this past winter.

We lined up 11 women for the pro and experts. The course basically ran reverse from last year. It started pretty wide open, but quickly narrowed into the twisty, hilly single track. I sat in 5th for the first lap, then dropped to 6th when I ran off the trail...(now I remember why my leg was bleeding). I stayed about 10 seconds behind the girl now sitting in 5th. With two laps left, I could tell she was slowing up, so going up the gravel/rock hill I passed her and gave an extra push to try to make a little space between us and it worked! I finished in 5th! I'm thrilled, especially considering that trail is like nothing I train on or will even race on for the rest of the year. It was technical with steep power climbs. The only redeeming quality is that it's a short race!

This week I'm finishing up a training block with alot of hours. Weather and motivation permitting, I should have about 19 hours in on the bike! We will see how that turns out!!