Sea Otter is the first A race of my season, and I spent all winter training for this one epic weekend. The cross country course is long, climby, and has very few technical sections. I’ve done dozens of hill repeats and intervals to prepare for those long, monotonous climbs. I think I was over thinking this race in the weeks prior, but I was definitely prepared. In my opinion, I have the perfect machine for this course. My carbon Grammo Toa is light, stiff and racy, which is ideal for all the extended climbing and fire roads. I felt fully capable of a top 5 finish in Cat 2 15-18.
There were about 12 other girls in my class, but I only knew 2 or 3 of them. I was nervous, simply because I didn’t know what to expect from my competitors. But I know better than to have that kind of mindset in a race. To me, the key to cross country racing is to clear your head of everything but the split second you’re in.
When that whistle blew, I stopped thinking of backup plans, or what could go wrong. All I thought of was pedaling; just making circles. The pace of the pack was painfully slow the whole time we were on the road, and it took everything I had not to try to run away. Maybe I should have… being mid-pack when we got to the singletrack messed me up on the next few miles. I had to make some strong moves to get back from 5th to 2nd, and by the 5 mile mark I was down to 3rd.
During the next few miles of singletrack, I could see 2nd place up ahead every time I came around a turn, but I couldn’t bridge the gap and began seeing her less and less.
I was in no man’s land when I hit the feed zone, and the burn in my legs was growing every second. I got the report from my dad as he was handing me my bottle; 1st was 4 minutes ahead and 2nd was about a minute.
In the last 5 miles of the race, I was in a cat-and-mouse situation. I knew I was getting so close to 2nd, and I felt 4th not far behind me. If I could push to make my way up to 2nd, it might help me hold off 4th.
The last, grueling, long climb was complete agony. I could see 2nd place ahead of me. Not even 15 feet up the fire road. All I had to do was just keep making circles, simple as that. Just make circles faster than she could. But I just couldn’t bridge that tiny little gap. No matter how hard I went, spending every last bit of power in my legs, she was still barely up ahead. She had 17 seconds on me when I hit the finish chute.
I was so stoked with 3rd place and a podium. Yeah, it nagged me a little that I was that close to 2nd, but I left it all out there. In the end I had a great race, I felt great, my bike was great, and my results were great.
Sea Otter was an amazing success thanks to all the support from my family and sponsors. I was sad to see the best week of the year pass, but I have nothing but great memories.
Keep chasing....
