FIRECRACKER!!!!!

Whats the best way to spend a holiday that most people relax, enjoy the weather, bbq, drink beer, and watch explosions? i know! climb 11,000ft at high altitude as fast as you can on a bike...

woohoo!

so thats what i did- along with lots of other crazy mountain bikers- it was the Marathon National Championships held in Breckenridge, CO. i was actually really excited about it, since the longer races seem to suit me better anyway- the pic was taken riding down main street while we all high fived the kids standing along the side cheering for us- definitely one of my favorite parts of the race! of course, this was before the pain started on the first climb...

i drove up thursday evening and met up with everyone at bretts house in dillon which was huge- 3 bedrooms with a loft- we all packed in and turned out to be an awesome weekend of racing and riding- oh and some wicked ping pong, Foosball, and a lot of relaxing-

we drove up to breck friday morning to start the race around 11am. i "warmed up" with becca- well we rode around a little to ease the pain of the first climb, which didnt help.. it was a classic tilley start- got blown off the back of the strung out group of pro women as we climbed up Boreas pass. i felt real bad. perfect- ha! just like the rest of my races have been this season. there were 2 laps of 25 miles each, and last year when i raced it i went too hard on the first lap. so this time, i sat back, paced myself and had fun on the first 25 miles. once i passed through the start finish after 2.5 hrs, i was ready to get things goin- i started on the climb for the second time and i felt awesome, being motivated both by lack of water in my water bottle (there were 4 feed stations on the course, one at the top of the first climb) and the fact that i could finally see some of the girls i was racing against- reeling them in. one by one. i went from being almost last up to 7th, making up about 8-10 minutes on the second lap. by the time i was finished though, i could barely stand. my brother jay had come up to spend the weekend in breck too, and met me at the finish line. it was great to see him- after some bbq and beer, i was returning to my normal state- well almost. nothing like getting close to drunk off of 2 pbrs! yeah!

it was back to the house for some relaxing... the next day brett took all of us out (keri b., jeff, megan m., brian fuentes, becca, brett, chris butler and me) for another epic ride in keystone- which was amazing, but i did struggle a little on the climbs... the thunderstorms rolled in and it was time for a nap! we ended the day with an amazing dinner- another perfect day. it was a great weekend filled with tons of riding, good food and good people- cant wait until next year!