My first collegiate race

I don't have too many good pictures. It was kind of a crazy weekend and I was either on my bike, or totally not even thinking of taking pictures. I'll be better next time, I promise!

This weekend the races were in Sol Vista, CO, real close to Grandby. We took the trailridge road through Estes around, a real pretty, but long drive. I was in a 15 passenger van, and the only girl! We didn't get to Sol Vista until about 7:20pm so it was hurry up and set up the tents before dark. It was also a little awkward because I didn't know a single person, but fun anyway.

Here are some lame pictures of our campsite. We camped in ski run, which was pretty sweet.

Let me tell you, it was cold! It got way below freezing that first night. I got so cold! In the morning we were all so happy we weren't racing until 9:30-10:15am.

Here is a pic out the lodge window where we had to register Saturday morning, you can kind of see the trails out there. It was gorgeous!
Saturday's weather was perfect for a cross country race. It was chilly, but not cold and the sun was out so once you were riding, you were warm. I didn't get any pics before the race, but here are some afterwards. My race started at 10:15am and I was in the Women's B category. Women have A and B categories based on experience, Men have A, B, and C. The race course was pretty fun, not too hard except for one downhill spot. I started off in solid 5th, then moved to third for awhile, then got passed on the really long uphill section. I need to work on my uphill climbing, that is where everyone caught up with me. But I always caught up with them on the downhill, that is my strong point right now. I found out after the race that I placed 5th out of 12. I'm saying not too shabby for my first race!

Some of my teammates

This next pic I tried to give you a view of the downhill section near the end, but didn't work too well.

More of my teammates at the finish by the Sol Vista Lodge. We were all pretty wiped.

That was Saturday. Later in the afternoon I had to go down to the clinic because I was having really bad asthma trouble. I don't know if it was something in the air or because I pushed myself so hard but I couldn't do my other race in the morning. I was kind of happy but disappointed too. Sunday morning's race for women's B short track was at 8am. It was frigid and I don't have cold weather gear. Short track is a lot more brutal on the lungs too because it is more of a sprint even instead of an endurance event. You go around a short track for 15min and then complete two more laps. Incredibly painful is how everyone on the team describes it!

This is my teammate Nell, she got 1st in the cross country race on Saturday, the same category as me and then 3rd in short track. Not the best shot of her crossing the finish line, my camera doesn't take very good action photos.

I had a ton of fun and definitely want to do it again! I'm thinking of taking this next weekend off from racing to train some more and get my lungs into better working order. I also need to get some cold weather gear. Camping was such a great part of the weekend, even if it was so cold. We had the best fires both nights and mornings. Stay tuned, I'll let you know as more races come what happens! and better pics!