Xterra Buffalo Creek

For the last 3 weeks I've been battling one cold after another. I was feeling good all week until Thursday when my sinuses started to throb and my nose was expelling all kinds of colorful gunk. The buzzing of the alarm at 5am on Saturday was painful. My boyfriend extraordinaire chauffeured myself, Becky and Brian to the race venue outside of Bailey. Despite the mountain bike lacking any technical sections I love this race as the venue is beautiful! Minus the rain that started falling as I crossed the finish line, and never stopped, the day was perfect for racing (cool and overcast). This year there were 550 participants making it one of the largest Xterras in the World. The race was run very smoothly considering how many people there were...props to the promoters and all the volunteers who made this event happen!

I was one of only two professional women at the race. Susan Williams (bronze medalist in triathlon at the 2004 Olympics) would prove to be great competition for me and end up beating me by less than a minute. I had a decent swim in the chilly lake (61 degrees). For about 30 seconds I was swimming next to Susan but then she took off and there was no way I was going to try and stay on her feet. Doug was out riding around on the course and both times I saw him he told me I was about 3 minutes behind Susan. On the run I had no idea how far ahead Susan was and I just kept focusing on catching the men in front of me. In the end my time was 9 minutes faster than last year...I biked 8 minutes faster than last year and ran almost a minute and a half faster. How I did this with snot running down my face the entire race I do not know. As soon as I crossed the finish line a random lady gave me a tissue and said, "here, I think you need this". I do know that I paid for it dearly on Sunday and was confined to the couch the entire day except for my 20 minute walk around the neighborhood. I even broke down and took TheraFlu and Advil (I hate taking medicine of any kind) and had to miss Father's Day dinner with my family.

Hopefully the doctor will give me the good stuff today and I can kick whatever has been moving around my body for the last 3 weeks. Thanks to all my sponsors for their continued support...Wheat Ridge Cyclery, Yeti, Powerbar, Rudy Project and Pearlizumi.