Pando pando pando

I think in the future before I race, I'm going to write down my goals and seal them up in an envelope.  This should help me to keep my brain on track...

This race was a hard one for me, the plan was to get some mileage, enjoy the day and check out the infamous Pando course.

Josh and I packed up for the race and started on the road around six Friday.  We had plans to get to the hotel around nine and in bed by ten.

This was about the time I decided to double check the registration fees on the website and realized the race went from 12-12 and not 8-8.  Crappers...

We turned around to drive back home to grab the lights (we actually discussed bringing them right before we left and decided against it...oh man).

We eventually did make it to the hotel and checked in at just before midnight.  At least we would be able to sleep in the next day!

Saturday we were up and moving, but we still managed to arrive right at the last minute for late registration.

Josh went to work setting up our pit and I grabbed my race number. 

After dressing in my kit, I grabbed my helmet to do some warm up spinning and noticed that there was a giant crack on the back.

Last weekend at WAM I had taken a spill on day one when a passing cyclist lost control of his bike and went down in front of me.  Apparently my helmet took a bit more of a hit then I realized during that episode!

We had brought Josh's helmet as an alternate so at least we had a replacement...

The race began and the 4 mile loops started accumulating.  There's quite a bit of climbing (it is a ski park after all) and immediately my legs were screaming...in their defense WAM was just five days prior...but who wants to make excuses for them?

Now, my bike on the other hand, had no qualms about making its issues known.  It sounded like a bowl of rice krispies...snap, crackle, pop.

Josh kept playing with it at each pit stop, but we weren't able to completely eliminate the problem until he switched out the seat clamp at mile 45.

After the six hour riders had finished, I started feeling fairly nauseous and found myself spending more and more time in the port a john.  It crossed my mind that people might be counting the number of times I was stopping to use them...but thats probably just in my head.

Around seven o 'clock, I rolled into the pit and broke the news to Josh that I was calling it a day.

We discussed it for a few minutes and agreed it was the best course of action (technically I was the only 12 Hour Lady so by default I was taking first either way).

After breaking down the pit we stopped in to say good bye to our friends from D2 racing and then started home.

Overall, I had met my race goals:

1.)  Have fun
2.)  Get in some mileage
3.)  Check out a new course
4.)  Don't push too hard and get injured

But, it was still hard to deal with not staying on the bike for 12 hours (it was a 12 hour race afterall).  The mind is a funny thing and it keeps wanting to fixate on this one detail.

So instead, I'm diverting and focusing on how beautiful it was that day and how lucky I am to be able to ride :-).

And now it's time to start writing down my goals for my next race!