Mammoth was a trip!

We got there Friday afternoon (race was on Saturday) and lo' and
behold, Mom was already there! That's got to be first! Due to work
schedules and such we were not able to leave until Thursday evening
so that did not give me any chance to pre-ride the course during the
"official" practice times. No worry...I poached the course after all
the racing was done for the day and hoped not to get caught. I could
have been disqualified. There was one problem - the Pro course (which
were the one's racing that day) was a different set of loops than the
Sport course. So, I couldn't figure out what course I was on...Yikes!
Oh well! Mammoth is at a very high elevation-almost 9000 ft. and not
at all technical. It's very dry and the place is loaded with Pumice.
So, I figured at least I got to get a feel for the terrain and what
the race would be like even if I didn't exactly know where I was
going!

Race day rolls around and I get lucky...they are not starting us
until 3pm! I got to sleep in, eat a huge breakfast and relax! What a
luxury. In Idaho, they started us at 7am! Ouch! Anyway, the day was
beautiful and I found myself at the start line wondering what the
heck I was doing there with all these girls from around the country
who look like they were out for blood. Very scary. It was an odd
thing to be at a race where we didn't know anyone and none of the
girls from the WIM series showed up. Going into this race I was
ranked 9th in the country from all the points I racked up doing WIM
races. I happened upon that info by accident and what a surprise.

So suddenly they are calling us up to the line to start, but they are
calling the girls by name and introducing them. I figured they were
highlighting the top girls from around the country and then they
called my name! Weird. Yeah, and kind of cool too! The gun went off
and we were away... The start was a road climb that turned into a
fire road climb that just went on forever. I immediately went into
oxygen deprivation and it was all I could do to stay on my bike as I
watched the entire field ride by me. Very discouraging and I
contemplated stopping. My arms hurt so bad and I felt like I couldn't
even keep my granny gear moving. Then I started that weird
self-talking thing. "You can't stop! You drove 16 hours to get here
and you might as well do the race" "Just keep riding... no, stop,
what's the use, really? You'll never catch anybody. You're too far
behind..." And I was really far behind. I looked back about 1/4 of
the way up the hill and there was only one girl behind me. How sad.
Having never really been in this position before, I decided to calm
down and try to just keep riding. I knew there was some fun trails to
be ridden on the course and if I could just make it to the top of the
hill, I could at least try to have some fun while I was getting my
butt kicked by the rest of the field.

Then a funny thing happened, I started catching up with people. I was
having a great time descending some really great single track and
suddenly I was in a position to start passing the girls ahead of me.
One girl crashed and I was able to get around her before she could
get back up, and as I was really starting to settle in, the course
went in a direction that I had not ridden the day before. This turned
out to be a really steep hill that I passed another girl on. This
hill was even worse the first one. I think it must have been 20%
grade at least. While I was still near the bottom I heard someone
beating on a drum in a very regular rhythm. So, I focused on the drum
and just tried to stay upright. About 50 meters from the top was this
man with a 5 gallon bucket and a stick cheering us all on to the top.
Awesome! I remember thinking, "Please be here the next time I come
around 'cause this hill is really going to suck the second lap!" And
then I found out out that I had indeed NOT ridden the Sport course
the day before... I was coming into an area called "7 Bridges" which
was a series of bridges that ran down through a gully filled with
rocks, ledges, and drops. Oh my, what fun! It still was not as
technical as anything we get here in Washington and I was able to
ride it cleanly and with out incident.

I ended up passing a few more girls on the second lap. The funny
thing was that I passed them on the first hill where everyone blew me
away at the start. I watched them sitting up in their saddles,
craning their necks trying to see the top of the hill. I thought to
myself, "Keep your head down and keep pedaling." Hills seem flatter
if you stay focused on the ground and not where the top is. And I
watched them slip behind me as I made my way up the last time I would
ever have to ride this hill. This is what I kept telling myself all
the way up. "This is it... this is the last lap of the season... this
is the last race of the season... this is the finals... ride like
you've never ridden before, because this is it..." And that's what I
did. The guy with the bucket and the stick were there for us on the
second lap and thank goodness. I would have never made it up that
hill with out him and his beat that was so perfect for the grind. I
rode the rest of the second lap harder than I've ever ridden
anything. Just before the finish was a short but punishing climb that
led into the final descent. My legs have never been so tired. I
finished the race with nothing left in the gas tank. I was completely
spent as I charged down to the finish line.

I ended up placing 6th overall. A little disappointing since I just
missed the podium by one place, but considering I had ridden my
hardest race ever and it turned out to be the best racing I've ever
done, I am very pleased with the outcome. I didn't come in last and I
didn't give up. I went through the whole process of talking myself
into finishing and what a drag it would have been if I had given up.
I would have missed my best race of the season! So, I went from 9th
in the country to 6th and for my first go at a national finals race,
I couldn't have asked for a better experience.

Mammoth Lakes is a very cool little town and we had a lot of fun
there. Scott and I still had more fun planned before heading home...
We stashed our bikes and extra gear at the Inn on the mountain at the
bell-hop station and for free no less! They were so cool. We were
kind of at our wits end when none of the bike shops in town would let
us drop our bikes for a few days while we went backpacking. One of
the shops wouldn't even take our bikes in for tune ups... he didn't
even want our money. And so I just starting calling hotels around
town to see if any of them would hold our stuff. The first place I
called was the Inn on the mountain and the lady I talked to said, "Oh
yes! We do this all the time. Just come to the front desk and we'll
take care of it. No charge and completely safe. Your bikes will be
locked up inside!" I couldn't believe my ears. We had not even stayed
there and they wanted to help us. Talk about customer service. So, up
we went, packed our gear, said goodbyes to Mom and the dogs, and to
Jim Albright and the rest of the SingleTrack Team, and took off for
the hills.

We spent 4 glorious days hiking around the Sierras. Starting at the
Devil's Post Pile section of the John Muir Trail we headed up towards
Thousand Island Lake. My feet were in really bad shape the first day.
I never really had a chance to get my boots broken in properly and
the pain was really something else. But we forged on. Eventually, we
made it up past the 10,000 ft mark and spent one of our nights at
Garnet Lake with the Ritter Ridge as the back drop to the lake. Mt.
Banner was spectacular. Garnet Lake is just a couple miles over a
ridge from Thousand Island Lake and we had planned to spend a couple
of nights there, but hiking out the next day we noticed big thunder
heads moving in and it was getting quite cold at night. Scott decided
that we should head down instead of going up since I was moving very
slow and may not be able to move fast enough if we happened to get
stuck in some kind of weather that we needed to get out of. So, we
made our way down this incredible canyon that has no name but the
Middle Fork of the San Joquine runs through it. All the Aspen were
turning fall colors and the trees were amazing. We ended up having
fantastic weather the whole trip, although it was very cold at night.
Apparently it had snowed in Mammoth Lakes the week before we got
there.

We are home now and it's good to see Beni. We missed him. This
weekend is Salmon Days and the fish are making their way up the
creek. I never get tired of watching them and I don't think Beni does
either. He's spent every day outside since we've been home. Well,
that's it for now. I go back to work tomorrow : ( Oh well, it was
nice to finally take a real vacation and get some perspective on the
whole work thing and how it fits into the whole life thing.