Stump Jump Race

This is usually one of my favorites.  The Stump Jump course is super fast, really flowy, almost no climbing, and just so fun.  This year I didn't get a chance to preride.  But that wasn't the only change.  This year was crazy...

My entire family raced.  My son Jack, who will be three at the end of August raced in the 3-6 y/o class at 9am.  He loved it and was so cute.  I could not have enjoyed myself more.  You can see pics on Jack's Baby Blog.

At 9:30am hubby raced in the Clydesdale category and Jack and I cheered him on.  Finally it was my turn and to be honest, I wasn't ready to race.  We woke up so early to make the kids race, and I missed out on a warm-up, but what the heck.

We were there and I love this course.  After a quick trip to the restroom, I just made it to the start line.  And there was a huge group of girls.  I think I counted 20 between the pros and experts.  I got a decent start but was sucking wind on the gravel climb without a warm up and entered the single track towards the back of the pack.  Then I started passing a few girls.  Within minutes the single speed guys were on us, then the sport men.  It was crazy and there was no where to pass.  After I rubbed elbows and handle bars with a few guys nearly crashing, I realized I couldn't take the chance and race in this traffic.  So I slowed down a bit and pulled over to let guys pass.  It felt safer.  But still there were so many guys.  Eventually a few girls even went by.  I was just getting freaked out by all the other riders.  Weird, I know.

Anyway, there went my race.  I finished three laps at an easy, comfortable pace just having fun, chatting with the other slow racers.  I guess this means I'm not quite ready for prime time.  I'm definitely not aggressive anymore on the bike and I just won't take a chance of some stupid guy falling on my or knocking me over with a bad pass.  Maybe I'm a wuss.  But until June, this is where I'm at.  17th out of 20 to be exact.