A Great Day at Sugar House

So, I feel pretty good about the race today.

Sure, my result wasn't what I was hoping for, but I still had a lot of fun.



I felt strong and confident during the race. I held with the pack and even took a turn leading the pack around the circuit with four laps to go.



With three to go, I lost the pack. I didn't realize it until it was too late. I'm not sure why. Maybe because there were some others who had been dropped ahead of me, and I was too maxed out at that point to realize they weren't in the lead pack anymore either.



At any rate, once I realized I was off the back, the negative self-talk set in. I quickly nipped that in the bud and started telling myself just to focus on catching those in front of me. With two laps to go, I caught the next three racers. Two of them had told me they were racing masters category, so I wasn't too concerned about them. As we came around the last lap, I was in front, and I led out down the last descent. I was pushing pretty hard because I didn't want to get caught by the other racer. She didn't catch me, but the other two ("masters") caught me as we were climbing to the finish line. I let them pass because, once again, I wasn't worried about them. I came across the line pretty happy with the way things had turned out.



Then, I looked at results. Come to find out, there wasn't a masters category today! I let two racers beat me to the line on a stupid assumption. Dumb mistake! It's not unusual for race organizers to race the Cat4 women with the masters women. So, maybe you can understand why I made the assumption. Oh well, you live and you learn I guess. 10th place.

After the race, I hustled home to shower and grab some grub to barbecue. Then Sling and I jumped back in the truck and drove back to Sugar House Park. The Ski Utah "official" team photo was happening in between races at 12:55. Wouldn't you know it, as we exited I-15 onto I-80 traffic was at a standstill. We only had minutes to get to the team photo. I was frantically calling my teammate, Brandi, asking her how to navigate around the deadlock so I could get to the photo shoot in time. We finally made it to the park, but it was already time for the shoot. They couldn't wait for us because some of the guys were starting the next race in a few minutes. Since the park was closed to traffic for the race, I had to run about a mile to the Ski Utah van. I barely made it there in time. Poor Slingshot. He had to park the truck, and I don't know if he managed to make it into any of the pictures. He was just stepping into the group when the photographer took the last picture.

After the photo shoot, we hiked back to the truck and hauled all the food back to the pavilion near the start/finish line. I think I'm more tired today from all the running back and forth from the truck than I am from the race! Anyway, we grilled up some hamburgers, had some salad, fruit, chips, and cupcakes. We had some extra hamburgers, so we invited some of the Ski Utah team members over to share with us. I didn't want to have to haul any more food than necessary back to the truck.

After eating, I headed back to the start/finish line to watch the men Pro/1/2 race.



Hot!



Those guys are fast. Burke Swindlehurst came out to the race today. He was off the front in a break for most of the race, and he looked like he wasn't even working hard.



Swindlehurst won.



Then two other guys. Then Dave Harward.



All in all, I had a really fun day.