After a pleasant rest day on Saturday, I was back at it on Sunday with a metric mountain bike race in Damascus, VA called Iron Mountain. This was the first year for the event, and there was a good turnout. They did a fabulous job marking the course, stocking the aid stations, and feeding us well afterward… I give this race two thumbs up. I hope to see more people out there next year!

What can I say about this race?? … It was HARD!!!

I had all sorts of mechanicals (bike and human related). I started out flatting before the first aid station. I rode it for a while, but the descent I was on kept getting rockier and rockier… so I figured it wasn’t the best idea for my rim to keep going. I stopped to try to change it, and couldn’t get the tire off with my tire levers. A nice girl stopped and helped me start to get the tire off, so then I was able to do the rest. I met her after the race… her name is Laura, and we actually ran against each other in high school. Funny! Definitely a small world…

So once I finally got my flat changed, I stopped at the first aid station to pick up another tube. By now 3 women had passed me. I passed one back pretty soon after the aid station on the paved road, then I caught up to Laura on the next single track climbing section. We traded places for a while, as she would pass me on the downhills and I’d pass her on the uphills. I crashed about 4 times on one rocky and muddy descent, and that made me lose a lot of my nerve for the rest of the day on the downhills.

Once at aid station two, I saw the girl that was leading (named Misty) just pulling out. I quickly got my bottle and camelback filled up with some HEED and headed out. I ended up catching and passing Misty on the gravel road, and on the next section of single track climbing, my chain broke.

ARGH!

A guy was coming up on me, and he was really nice. He stopped and made sure I was okay. We introduced ourselves (his name is Chris), and actually ended up fixing the chain for me pretty quickly. BUT… while I was stopped yet again, Misty passed me again! So, here I was chasing AGAIN.

I was ahead pulling in to aid station three (which ended on a technical downhill), but Misty was really quick at the aid station and pulled out right when I did. We traded places for a while… again, I’d gap on the uphills, she’d gap me on the downhills.

Finally, we reached aid station four, and I was still good on water and HEED, so I didn’t need to stop. I kept going. At this point, there was about 10 miles or so left of the race? Not much left, but there was a good deal of climbing. I knew that I needed to put in a significant gap on the uphill so I could get to the bottom of the downhill section first in order to win. After all the frustrating mishaps I had, I was very determined to win the thing.

I stayed with Chris and another dude on the last section of rocky uphill, and then hit the singletrack climbing… I kept pushing, telling myself this HAD to be it. It HAS to be over soon. JUST KEEP GOING, PLEASE GOD LET THIS END SOON…

Then, on a technical downhill (oh my favorite today with all my stupid crashes), a moto came up behind me. Well, that really freaked me out… but at this point I was so focused on just GETTING DOWN as fast as I could because I worked so hard to get back in the lead that I wanted to win so bad I just kept going… the guy in the moto said, “don’t worry about me, you’re okay… just keep going…” So, I knew he had to be a part of the race. When he finally did pass me on some more open downhill singletrack, he said, “Hey Alisha! It’s Tom!” I recognized him immediately- he’s one of my friends from Boone Bike. I asked him how much further, and he told me that I had only ONE MORE little climb and that was it… I was almost there. Sweet. That was all I needed to hear.

So I kept pushing hard up that last climb, and then it was all downhill to the line. I just told myself, “Alisha, JUST GET DOWN THIS and it’s OVER… JUST GO! JUST GET DOWN, GET DOWN, GET DOWN…”

It was SO rocky the last section, my forearms were about to fall off. Seriously. The thing that hurt the worst after the race was my forearms. They were sore to the touch. It was so rocky and wet, and there was some crazy drop offs that I rode because I’d get up on them (trying to go downhill fast) and be like, “oh SHIT! well, I guess I’m ridin this… I hope I stick it!” I’d hold my breath… and somehow I made it.

All that “self talk” worked on the way down the last descent… I made it home first. I won!

Chris finished right in front of me, so we rode in together to the start area. The two people that helped me during the ride, actually ended up traveling to the race together! Funny! That definitely made for a “small world” feeling.

I was so muddy when I got back, I immediately went down to the river and washed off. I had mud caked all down my legs and my shoes… what an awesome day out on the trails. I loved every minute of it! We hung out just talking to people most of the afternoon in Damascus because the weather was so nice.

I enjoyed a VERY lazy Monday. Very well deserved after the hard week I had last week. We went to breakfast at Boone Bagelry, and I had the best blueberry pancakes I’ve ever had in my LIFE. God, they were good. Then, I went for a very easy recovery swim in the afternoon to work out some soreness (mostly in my forearms still! crazy!), and I took the dogs out for a hike around the maze trail at Bass Lake.

We went to trivia night at a bar in Boone with some friends, and our team ended up 2nd! I was so tired this morning though, because we didn’t get to bed until almost midnight (AGAIN)… I ended up skipping master’s swim practice. Oh well! This week is more about rest and making sure I’m on top of it before pushing too hard again.

I’m heading out for a run at Trout Lake in a while, then I’m going to mountain bike with a group in Wilson’s Creek Gorge. ROCK IT!!