The day started before sunrise. A 7:35AM start time had me wanting to be at the start no later than 7AM. I polished off my now “standard” race morning breakfast of oatmeal with dried cranberries and cinnamon (heating up some water in the hotel microwave) and cold brew with oat milk. I also took a few minutes to look at the course one more time. It had been changed the day before when the organizers deemed one of the big climbs had too dangerous of a descent given the amount of recent rain. Fine by me! We still had 128miles … Continue reading
Tag: Racing
The Hell of the South: The Lead Up
Earlier this year I decided I wanted to try bike racing. I signed up for Rebecca’s Private Idaho (at the encouragement of my BaseCamp friends), Rexy (because I wanted to do 200 miles), and Ned Gravel (as it seemed like a good, local, first gravel race). Three races of varying lengths and types seemed like a good way to dip my toe in the race scene.
However, in early April I stumbled across an Instagram post from the company Hyland’s. They were looking to put together a sponsored team for the upcoming Belgian Waffle Rides, a series of … Continue reading
RPI: The Queen’s Stage Race
Okay, before I finish my ENTIRE season of races, I’m going to get this post in about our first time racing the Queen’s Stage Race at Rebecca’s Private Idaho. I’ve been putting it off because it was such a big event and I didn’t know how to quite sum it up. It’s gonna be a long one, but here goes:
DAY 0 – WEDNESDAY, Sept. 1st
A couple weeks before RPI we realized that it would be silly to try and drive the whole 11 hour trip on Wednesday and then start the race on Thursday. So on Tuesday … Continue reading
A bit of catch up
Whoops. Apparently this racing things has me a little behind on some posts I wanted to make ?♀️ I’ve got three I want to share, but I suppose I should rewind a bit to Ned Gravel and my first ever bike race.
Paul and I were up early to get ready for the big day. Our plan was to eat breakfast, get dressed, and get some caffeine in us before meeting our friend Eric to carpool to the start. Nederland is about 40min away, and we knew parking would be tight. Overnight thunderstorms and rain had kept us awake, but … Continue reading
Tomorrow, we ride!
My very first gravel race (or, well, bike race of any kind) is tomorrow. It’s Ned Gravel – a new race up in Nederland, CO. I am a wee bit nervous! It has been years since I’ve done any kind of race or competition (running races, bouldering), and quite a while since I’ve even done a bike event (since…. 2016?). So I definitely have some pre-race nerves happening, even though I just keep telling myself ‘it’s just a bike ride’.
We’ve been assuming it would be very hot. It’s been in the 90s most days the past several weeks, so … Continue reading