Chequamisized

Another Chequamegon in the books. Every year this race kicks my butt. I can never go from sitting for 15 min in the start shoot to spinning out a 44x12 within a minute. Long story short I pushed myself until OO usually I would be feeling good at this point but no can do so I sat up on the dirt road before Martels Pothole and chatted to a guy who was feeling the same. Right before I went into the 4 wheeler trails A group with Hollywood,Jena Zander,Nicoli Anikin, and Jan Rybar, came up. I Jumped in and decided If my race was finished I might as well help Jena since she was chasing down Lea Davison. I pulled for her on the long dirt road section and kept her in contact with the group. She was strong out there for sure. I was ahead of her a bit at the top of Fire Tower but I think she caught back up on the last Birki section which is where I started to cramp on the climbs. After that we caught some more riders on the logging trail and last dirt road. She must have had a second wind because she went to the front and pulled into the Telemark trails. I went to the back of the line and talked to a fellow Hed employee Paul Ellis for a bit. I spun all the hills the best I could to ward off any cramping coming in with a personal best (didn't feel like it) time but a personal worst placement. Last year I had a time of 2:25 and was 32nd but this year my time was 2:22 and I was 59th. Go figure. I got double chicked too which hasn't happened for 4 years when Sue Haywood beat me on this course. Those are some strong ladies out there mixing it up with some excellent male riders. I found out latter that Sam helped out Lea, giving her his water bottle after she dropped hers at a feed (It was a fresh bottle he had in his jersey). Lea also managed to beat Sam too, and for her to beat the likes of Tim Mulrooney, and Eric Thompson on a course like this to me is amazing. Helmets off to her.
The last race for me is next week at St Cloud. Its a flat technically fun course, so if it doesn't rain and I don't have a lot of homework I'll be there. As far as training on the bike goes its over. I just ride when I feel like it or when I can ride to school. I'll go on a little break here and start the process over to skating.