Sea Otter

I was pretty excited to be going to another race, and hoping to get revenge from last year's bad race at sea otter. i arrived in monterey, CA on wednesday night, and got a chance to preride the course with Kristin D. and Wendy S. on Thursday. the course was in great shape, and the weather was beautiful. i had a good feeling about Sunday, and I was really looking forward to the super fast course.
The weekend started on Friday with the Time Trial. we were preriding it the day of the race, and it was taking us around 7 minutes to do. this was gonna be a lung burner-not exactly my best event. sure enough, i burnt the hell out of my lungs and finished in 5 minutes. i ended up around 35th-ish, which is fine, whatever. the next day was short track, and it was pouring rain, seriously. my sister kristin came to watch, and i felt bad that it was on the day with the worst weather. she braved it though, and cheered in the rain and mud. another event that ended up around 33rd. i seem to be stuck in the 30ies. i just wanted to get it done so i could look forward to what i came out for, which was the cross country.
the next day, sunday, i woke up to clear blue sunny skies. awesome. it was a tad windy, but whatever, its a mountain bike race, right? we got to the venue, and i started doing all my standard prerace stuff, hopped on the bike and warmed up. The pro guys went off before us, which is nice so we don't have to deal with them trying to pass us midrace. i got called up close to the back which i don't understand, but there was a long road section to start around the leguna seca raceway so i didn't care. my legs felt good, and i was ready. the race started and after a few close calls on the road, we crammed onto the gravel road to start the real race. i was so excited to be racing, and got a little ahead of myself coming up and over the hills. with the wind was at our backs, i launched up over and down a super fast decent and barreled down ruts from previous rain storms. my speed was a bit excessive for my own strength, and my left arm decided to give out as i was picking lines downhill. needless to say, i went down pretty hard. luckily no one else went down or ran over me, which was nice. i fell onto my shoulder, and i layed there for a while and thought about things- if i should keep going, if i broke it again, if i totally ruined the rest of the season.. i got up and decided to keep riding. i raced the rest of the race- well, more like i rode the course a couple times. i finished, not last suprisingly, and very sore. my shoulder was not broken, but holding onto the bars proved difficult through the race and i had to take every downhill very slow. suck. not a good race. but, there is always another one. so, i am recovering and taking lots of ibuprofen. i leave next week for the santa barbara norba, and then the fontana norba. i am staying in CA between them and hanging out with Wendy and Barb so that should be fun, and hopefully my shoulder will hold up.