First of all, I love racing at Coyote Hill. I can ride to the race course from my parents house, which is always sweet. And the course is mostly singletrack, with lots of roots and mud thrown in for good measure. In short, it's a mountain bike course, not a glorified cross course, and good technical riders tend to win there. That's the way it should be if you ask me, so it's always a blast to show up and race. Of course, racing is more fun if you're feeling fast, which I wasn't this year. I've been training a lot, and I feel like I could be fast, but my allergies and asthma have had other plans of late. Slowly but surely I'm getting on top of it, but I knew that Sunday was not going to be stellar. Nonetheless, I punched it on the first open climbing section and put myself, very temporarily, into the top 5. While that was a dumb move, it probably only accelerated the inevitable, and 15 minutes later I was sitting on the side of the trail, light-headed and wheezing, with a core temperature that felt like it was well over 100 degrees. Not so good.
Lucky for me Nina was racing the women's race not too far behind. By the time she passed me I was in good enough shape to pedal, and we cruised the next few laps together. Super fun. I was taking advantage of the dropper post on the (little) descents to have some fun, and rolling through the techy sections with the suspension wide open. Way more fun than racing a hardtail (though probably not faster, oh well). Apparently our combined efforts weren't for naught either, as Nina snagged a Cat. 1 State Title and I brought home 10th in the Pro field. Didn't see that one coming. Sweet. Maybe next time I can make the podium. That would be fun.
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