Sarah P. Makes the Podium at Sea Ottter!

After staying in a roachtel last year where I would not even let Simone touch the floor, Chris, Simone, and I and our folks rented a beautiful house in Monterey to make a little vacation out of this years Sea Otter. We had such a great time and that is the way to go. Thursday we pre-road the course and with the lack of rain it was very sandy and a bit sketchy. Friday we road the first half again, which was so nice to really prepare ourselves on this course. The course was 19 miles and I did one lap in Sport class, Chris did 2 in the Expert class. Saturday it rained hard, thankfully smoothing out the sandy terrain. We road part of the end of the course after the rains and went home to soak in the hot tub and chill before our race the next morning.

Simone decided to wake up screaming at 1:30 am Sunday. I finally got her down at 4 am with a motrin cocktail. All her molars and eye teeth seem to keep popping up at the most inconvenient times for us, so life goes being parents. So we awoke at 6 am, tired. Even our family crew that came to watch us was grumpy from the screaming baby in the middle of the night. We took Simone and my dad with us, strapped her on his back and got on our bikes. Chriss race went off at 7:48 am and mine at 8:48, early as all get out. I chose not to trip on the fact we slept terribly the night before as what good would that do us, we had no choice but to act chipper.

This place is madness- 9,000 athletes registered. I guess that is a record. The cost of racing is steep, they now even charge $10 to spectators, but to race in this setting was worth it to us, we were pumped. I got to the line 20 mins before the race and felt great, usually I feel nervous and a but intimidated but I felt really pumped. I think because I new the course so well and felt trained. There were 20-25 of us girls in the 30-34 class. We started on the race track with Marianne Hunter and I taking the lead. When I was out front, I followed some random arrow, all the girls followed. We hit a dead end- oops, I have never been good at directions. So we all got back on track and hit the dirt. The advice I used a lot on this course from my hubby was to rock the big gear in front whenever I could. That really helped give me power on the flats. I dont know why I tend to shy from that gear on my mtn bike. So the first part of the race I was in 5th, stuck on a single track behind a girl who started before us. That was the tough part about this race, you catch a lot of people and sometimes it is on a long climbing single track where passing is tough. Then the experts catch all of you on their second lap and it is a traffic jam. To make a long race story short. I caught all but one of the girls who finished one minute ahead. She had toe clips too and was just damn tough. Next year I think starting out as aggressive as possible is key to avoid getting jammed up on the single tracks as much as possible. The last 6 miles or so of the race before getting back on the race track is a long sustained climb- just up my alley. I got 6th last year in the beginner category and 2nd this year in sport so I was pretty darn stoked. The course was perfect after the rain and we avoided the wind because we started so early.

The awards were all screwed up and took until 3:00 to figure out as they had so many protests. Chris finished 4th so we both made the podium and in prizes got out race entry back. I really recommend this event, there is so much to see and do, we hope to go back next year.

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