We left on Friday evening and headed down to stay at a hotel near San Felasco, where we had stayed before on our girl trips.
Saturday morning, we got up and rode San Felasco for a couple hours (we saw this guy's truck in the parking lot http://runutsadventures.com/bike/?page_id=2 ).
Fun trail with great weather.Hangin' with our gnomie!
We had a tailgate lunch, then headed down to pre-ride the course of the 6 hour race.
The pre-ride of the red course was crazy. Lots of drops like Reddick on the 'fingers'. You just had to give it a go and get back off the saddle.
The trail was VERY narrow in several areas and had drop offs on either side, or water on one side with slanted roots to get over. I mentioned that a big fear of mine is coming off the trail and hitting the water. Cliffs, I don't mind. But green water where you can't see what's in there....just creeps me out majorly. Well, funny I should mention that, right?????
Here is Kate's description of the trail, "Seriously people, the trails were CRAZY - super-scary crazy the first go-round and increasingly fun with familiarity. There were spots where you were surrounded by Spanish moss riding a sandy single track ridge with rock and roots, algae covered swamp below on one side, lake on the other! Screaming vertical downhills, lots of ladder bridges (fell off one of those - doh!), spots with a rut just wide enough for your tire... intensely cool and fun."
We watched the mattress surfing.....very cool.
We showered at our most EXCELLENT hotel, then met Anne and Steve in town for dinner. Yummy!
Great sleep at the cool hotel Saturday night
and up early Sunday morning to head over to the race. The turn-out was much bigger than the promoters expected. Aim had asked the promoter to add a womens category to the red course and he did. There were over 10 ladies this year, as opposed to 2 last year.
We started off with a potato sack race. A false start has us laughing hysterically. Aimee looks pretty serious in the photos, so I think she may be changing sports in 2010.....
Aimee has got her potato sack GRRRRRRRRR on!
I was happy that the beginning of the course was so much more fun that I had remembered and was having such a great time that I missed the turn onto the more difficult red course. I turned around and hit the downhill turn full on. Aim said, "you would never come off this trail if it were at Tsali, so just ride it like there is no drop-off to the water on the side." So, I did. I was flying.....yep, flying ....endoed......right into the water.
This was a sketchy area, so they had two volunteers at the top and one of them yelled, "Are you okay, do you need some help?" All I could think about was ALLIGATORS and I yelled back, "Nope", I threw my bike up over the drop-off, over the trail and it landed hard on the other side. Then I practically jumped like wonder woman back up to the trail. I was so scared that there might be something living in there that I FLEW up and out of that swamp!
I jumped back on my bike and I could hear the guy say, " what is she doing....is she getting back on her bike?" So I rode off in a squishy sort of way. After a few seconds I noticed my handlebars were not going in the same direction as my tire, so I stopped to make some minor adjustments and laugh at the swamp moss that was hanging from my cables. That's when I noticed that I was covered in burs.
I headed out to one of the 'fingers' and got lost. I missed the same turn that the leader of the guys group missed. Found my way back and hit the trail again. I freaked everytime I was near the water, but liked the rest of the trail.
When I got back to the car, I picked off the rest of the burs and put on a dry kit.
I talked to Steve for a bit (cool and funny guy), then headed out for a road ride. Florida is so much fun to ride on the road. Flatness forever and the traffic is totally used to having cyclists on the roads. I rode and rode and rode and then remembered that I needed to drink, so I stopped to drink long and hard. That's when I noticed the orange orchard. A guy in a truck pulled up in a driveway down the road and I asked him about the orchard. He said no one had picked it for a long time and I could help myself. I did. I stuffed oranges in my pockets and down the front of my jersey. I looked incredibly deformed and I headed back to the race.
I was so excited to be riding on a sunny day in 80 degree temps with tree ripened oranges for a snack. I showed Steve and he was totally excited, too. I pulled open an orange and the juice poured out of it. Awesome! Then I took a bite....YOW they were SOUR!! No wonder no one picked that orchard!! They tasted like lemons. (later Aimee told me about how orange trees in FL are sour and that the sweet trees have to be grafted to root stock of the sour trees......yep, learned a little to late, huh?)
Yep, I went for a green swim and ate a sour orange. I could now feel the bruises forming and my knee swelling from my fall, so I thought I had better get in at least one more lap, while I could still ride comfortably.
Kate came through and said she would do a blue lap with me. I still freaked by the water, but the rest was cool.
All the Sorellas had a great time and the beer and BBQ chicken was amazing!
Our Asmaster sponsor guy was at the race and it was super cool to visit with him.
We had great cheerleaders along the way, as our kits are pretty recognizable and we are usually the largest group of female racers at a xc race in the southeast.
The long drive put us back in the middle of the night. 2 hours of sleep, then it was time to get up for work. Totally worth it and I can't wait until next year!!!
I missed having everyone together for the new year. It was always nice to have the juniors (especially new juniors) hanging out with the U23 speedsters and the young women. This year there is a definite split between the three groups, which helps to disperse the volunteer work that must be done. It's a good direction, but I hope we are all able to get together in 2010 to ring in the new cycling year.
