Well, I survived this race. That's about all I did though. I was looking forward to a few weeks off of racing and I think I checked out a few hours early. My body was feeling beat up, bruises and bumps everywhere from taking a few falls recently. My sister even mentioned she could tell I didn't have the fire in me that usually do at races.

Being the State Championship, this race drew a bigger field than usual, 8 Pro women showed. I love having a bigger field of competitors. A few women showed that I hadn't raced with before, that added a fun element to figure out how we'd all line up.

I gave it my best on the climbs. Sucked at the descents. Had chain suck on lap 3. Got picked up on for the first time ever while racing (he said he enjoyed looking at a woman in spandex on a bike, I wasn't offended, it just gave me motivation to ride!). Finished 5th with no heroics on my part. Had most of my family show up to cheer me on (including my son who had never seen me race!). Then cleared the course with my husband for additional series points. That's when things got epic for me. I was exhausted, had already raced and had to do one more lap. After some races I feel great and want to keep on riding. Not this one! Luckily, Johnny was there to help, he pulled most of the flags out of the ground and I wore the pack. The thing about the cleaning pack is after you've loaded a few things into it, every time you bend over to pick something up everything falls out. So really, cleaning the course is a 2 person job (I know Drew did it alone-he is the man!)

Now the plan is to enjoy a few days off the bike, just relaxing and letting my physical ailments heal.