Hell was Heaven

Dude. Hell of the North was a fun race! It could have been a little warmer, and there could have been less wind, but who's complaining? I had a blast!

The reason I had such fun: AWESOME TEAMMATES! Ski Utah Cycling was well represented today.

There were nine Cat 4 women racing today. Of the nine, six (five? maybe I'm counting a Masters racer?) were from the Ski Utah team. Since there were only two Masters women and a handful of Juniors, we all started the race together. Most of the group went into the gravel section together, but pretty soon the group was split up. The Cat4 women were divided between a lead group, my group, and some stragglers. At first my group had me, Shanna (Ski Utah), Nancy (Ski Utah, racing Masters), and another girl. Pretty soon I noticed that it was just Shanna, Nancy and myself. Another lap or two and Kara (also from Ski Utah) caught on with us. The four of us decided that since we were all teammates we would work together and practice some essential racing skills. We worked on pulling/drafting and working a rotating echelon (since the wind was strong from the north/northwest). As we rounded the last corner and started toward the finish line the pace picked up. We started joking about how we were all going to start sprinting and how we would get to see who the sprinters of the group were. Kara decided to take off first. Shanna and Nancy soon followed. At this time I was thinking that they were going too soon and I wasn't going to go with them yet. Good choice. Kara soon lost momentum, and I was able to push hard and pass her just before the finish line. I finished in 5th place.

I'm really proud of myself for hanging with my little pack. It made the race so enjoyable for me. What a great group of ladies!

I wish I had pictures of the race to share, but my usual photographer, Sling, was racing at the same time. I'll have to find some online photos later, I guess. Does anyone know who the race photographer was?