Bar-H Bash

This past Sunday i raced the first mtn bike race of the season at BarH. Put up by DORBA and all it's great volunteers-it was a great event as usual. I lined up at the start. I was fired up and nervous. We took off down the hill and i didn't have the strongest of starts. Teammate Christina Smith was in the lead gapping Leslie Reuter, Kim Jennings, Sara Krause and Rachel Byus who just catted up to expert.. CONGRATS! Then a gap and it was Nicole Call and I and then a gap behind us. The course changed from previous years and we took that right turn -right into the strong head wind. Fortunately, i was behind Nicole. We caught up to Rachel and i grabbed onto her wheel and then the men started to pass us. Thanks to Alan Johnson and Bill for letting me suck their wheel. I now owe Alan for helping me out in two races :) We caught up to Sara and we all staggered up the long false flat. Crossing the starting line, i was behind Kim J- about to start the long climb. During the climb i started to feel the start of one of my asthma attacks. I was trying to calm my breathing down so it wouldn't be a full on attack but i was still climbing. I was concentrating on breathing, breathe, breathe dammit! That's when Sara Krause passed me. She said something to me but all i could get out were gasps for oxygen. I knew if i stopped it would be full on so i wanted to just recover and continue. I finished the climb and was able to maintain and then recover and not stop. I glanced at my HR and it was only at 189. Usually i'm much higher and it felt much higher.
The whole race i went all out. My second lap i was having some trouble with the climb again and ended up throwing up after the first initial technical climb. Kim Chance (in the other class-good friend- super strong racer)caught up to me and we descended together and rode taking turns in the front the way back to the finish line. I never caught up to Sara again and i wish i would've worked with Kim to really pull on the false flats to gain some ground on Sara. That's one change i wish i would've made to make a stronger finish. My avg hr was 185 which was great. Although my max was only 193. Way below norm. That was a tougher course than the previous years (with the extra climbing and strong winds).. I'm not too disappointed with my finish. I did what i set out to do which was go all out. I hope Waco in a couple weeks will be even better.

Thanks to LoneStarWorks for ALL your support, Christina for allowing us to stay at your parents farm -what an awesome place, and of course for all the support, coaching and advice.

Thanks also to Dallas Bike Works for getting my bike ready for race day and working on it post race day. Whoever missed the bash this year should look it up for next year. It's definitely a race to put on the calendar.

Congrats to CHristina Smith, Kim Jennings and Dave Parks for winning their categories!

I ended up in 4th place.