Bike Racing and Waffles

Today was the DINO Brown County race. I rode my first lap in the time that I wanted, but just about everyone else rode it a lot faster. I haven't seen the times yet, but I think the course might have been smokin' fast today judging by the speed of the pro/expert guys that lapped me.

Unfortunately, the race didn't end well for me. I was robbed of the opportunity to blast the opening downhill of the of the race on the first lap because I got stuck another rider who beat me up the opening climb but was descending pretty slowly. The really sucky part is that I like to use the momentum from the first downhill to carry me up the next uphill, but today I had none, so I felt like I wasted a lot of energy.

Anyway, I think I made up for my missed opportunity by being especially reckless on the twisties and downhills of the second lap and I ended up paying for it dearly. I clipped a tree at a high rate of speed and somehow managed to accomplish the most painful crash of my life while barely getting cut up or dirty. I bruised my hip and my knee, but I'm not really sure why it hurt that bad. I think it was just shock, but I felt like I'd throw up from the pain. I lay in the middle of the trail for what felt like a really inappropriate amount of time (it was probably really 30 seconds) and finally rolled over to the side. I wasn't able to get my bike off the trail before a guy came up behind me. He moved it off the trail for me and kept going while I watched a bunch of guys go by and tried to decide if I could stand or not. After a couple of minutes, another expert girl who was behind me due to a flat came by and made sure I could stand and get on my bike. I was able to ride in my granny gear, but I wasn't in any condition to try and make another pass at the Aynes climb in that condition, so I took the shortest way back.

Although I like going out to eat after races, it was kind of unnecessary since we were 30 minutes from home. Adam's birthday was on Friday, and I got him a waffle maker (which he had asked for). So instead of Cracker Barrel, we had afternoon breakfast at home. He made the waffles and I reheated the frozen turkey sausage links. It was a pretty good meal.