Winter Park Point to Point

So, i raced this race not because i needed to or should have, since technically i am supposed to be resting. but i couldn't help myself- winter park has some of the most fun trails ever, and i couldn't pass up the opportunity to burn my lungs while experiencing some of the best mountain biking around.
i drove up saturday morning at 6am to get there in time to register. after drinking 2 cups of coffee on the drive up, i topped it off with a 3rd as i found a parking spot to unload and get ready. unfortunately i couldn't convince anyone else to come with me, since everyone is "resting." so i was flying solo, but there where plenty of girls who showed so it ended up being a pretty good race. i rode to the start line, which is about a 40 minute ride. the temp was about 50 degrees, so i had to peel off clothes as the sun came up and hide them behind a tree to get later.
the first 3 miles of the race is on a gravel road, and before long we had dwindled the group down to about 7 of us before the first climb. i paced myself pretty easy at the beginning, thinking back to the last time i did this race- and remembering how i blew pretty quick. to my surprise the climb was a lot easier than i remember- and that would apply to many other parts of the course too that i had thought were hard or tricky last year, but once i got to them it was no big deal. i guess thats a good sign- i must be getting better on technical stuff.
and then it happened again- i flatted. before the first rocky decent, which was pretty fast, i felt my tire bottoming out on the rocks. i rode it as long as i could, and finally stopped to put a tube in. i am pretty sure that tire is defective, so i am putting a new one on before keystone. i lost about 5 minutes, which was the gap that melissa thomas had on me at the end. suck. i ended up 5th- so i rode back to the car, cleaned the bike and headed to dillon lake to meet my brother Jay and his family for a little sailing. definitely a good way to end the afternoon- the weather was perfect, although we could have used a bit more wind- no complaints here though, the boat was a nice way to relax after the race, and surrounded by mountains, it doesn't get much better than that...