Portland usgp

i know its been a while since this race happened, but things have been a little crazy since then and now that i am warm and dry again i can finally try to remember some of the details of the portland weekend.
going into the race, i knew that it was going to be a sloppy mess. last year i came out to watch so i had some idea of what i was in for. i flew out with teammate amy dombroski and stayed with another teammate sara johnson who lives in portland. it was raining when we got there, and didn't stop until i left- i saw the sun the day i was flying away. i have no idea how people live there. seriously.
amy and i went to pick up anna milkowski at the airport and headed to the course for a preride friday, and it was muddy, just as expected. it was a different course than last year, but really fun with some good technical/off camber sections which made it interesting. so after riding until it was dark, we headed back to clean our stuff- which we will have down as a routine by the end of the weekend...
waking up saturday morning to snow was not what i was expecting in portland. but, i would rather have that than rain. sitting on the couch, amy and i decided that if we lived in portland, we were pretty sure we would never go outside, and just eat all day by the fire in front of the TV.
but a race was waiting for us- we bundled up and headed to the venue. unfortunately the snow turned to cold rain, and the conditions were just as muddy but the puddles were a lot colder as it splashed up onto you. ahhh, cross racing- a little snow, a little rain, and a lot of mud. what more could you ask for?
sara and her friends graciously came out the races to help us over the weekend- i think i will be forever in their debt- no amount of beer could repay them for standing out in the rain fixing our bikes and being in the pit- they did a fantastic job, and things couldn't have been smoother in and out of the pits. considering most of them had no idea how to hand off a bike, i would just like to say i would never had known- thanks guys if you are reading this. sara and the gang had things going like clockwork, and we really couldn't have raced without them.
i started ok, not great. after standing around waiting for call ups, i got really cold and by the time the race was on, i might as well had not warmed up. it wasn't a bad race, but not a great one either. i figured i had another day to get things going, so i left it up to sunday to try again. my knee was killing me, and i limped around afterward trying to loosen it while overdosing on ibuprofen.
waking up sunday morning was almost the same as the day before- only it was pouring rain instead of snow, and after a phone call from tim brennan telling me our kona tents had blown away during the night, i was a little worried about the day. we packed our bags full of every piece of clothing we owned (and borrowed some from sara too) and headed to the venue. it was true- no tents. so amy and i scouted around searching for another team to mooch off of- luckily ben turner was there with his trusty set of green clif tents and allowed us to use their space for warm up. i have no idea what we would have done if those guys weren't around- thanks again to another bunch of people who helped out the velo bellas.
in the pouring rain, we lined up waiting for the gun to go off. it was the longest 2 minutes of my life. i was shaking so hard from being cold and wet, and the race hadn't started. needless to say, i never got warm, only colder. the wind began to blow harder, and it was a constant 40 mph with gusts so hard it ripped up a tree on the side of the course. i wanted to quit after the first lap- my body was freezing up and i would never get warm throughout the race. i thought to myself there is no way in hell they will run the men after us, these conditions are too bad. after finishing horribly i rode straight back to the car and ripped off all my clothes. i didn't care if anyone saw me. i was so cold that i just wanted all things wet off of me. after putting dry clothes on over myself (and over all the mud still coating my body) i sat in the car with amy and we cranked the heat- i shivered uncontrollably for a good hour. i considered going to the hospital since i had never been that cold before-
it was over. my portland experience. i have to say that it was NOT epic, and i am not looking back and glad that i did it. i could have done without that weekend i think, although in between the racing was fun. i made it through but you could not pay me to ever live there, thats for sure.
i did realize one thing- if i could finish a race in those conditions, being that miserable and cold, i could do any race. nothing could ever be as mentally tough as getting through those races. at least i have that experience. oh and a lot of mud stained clothes.