The Big Valley Weekend at Manatoc ended up being an awesome weekend of racing!!Some Grunt Girls ran the first Leave No Trace Behind 14 mi Trace Race Saturday morning with Lee taking top honors by being the first female overall.
Saturday afternoon was killer with the first Northeast Ohio Cross race of the season with course built for the mountain bikers with some fun single track and long power stretches. Throw in some volleyball sand pits back-to-back with barriers I loved this course and I'll be back next year to tear it back. We had a strong women's field with alot of new faces which was great to see! I believe I took seventh overall which I am stoked about. Cross for me is a party. its alot less stressful than road any day so when I messed up with my shifters in the first lap I just laughed shifted up and started to hammer. Great race but I should have ridden a little harder I had a little too much left. Finished 8th of 13 riders.
Sunday morning I actually got up and to the race with plenty of time and apparently plenty of energy. I thought the race started at 10 not 10:30 so I sat at the line with Kate and Andrea (GGR) just chlling. This was kinda my first MTB race hence technically I did raced 2 TT out at the Thorn MTB Time Trial Series. The last few rides (I done 9x MTB rides total including this race) Ive been going solo and I wasn't used to riding in a pack. Well it wasn't an issue yesterday. They ended up splitting up the different fields sending us all in waves. Well the women got have shaft going off last. I figured oh well no big deal. I jokingly said to one of the women next to me that well I guess I just have to pass em all. Next thing I know the gun is off and I'm flying-I felt really really good. I'm still having a hard time processing it to be honest. Next thing I know I got up to the first group off on the the 30-39 men cruising in at 45:43 just under 6:30min ahead of the second women, taking 3rd in the men's 19-29, finishing I think top 7 for overall novice yesterday.
Not too bad for not riding the course, passing 30+ riders, and riding up those climbs while yelling passing your left. After the race I saw a co-worker of mine from the Kent State University Fitness & Wellness Center-Gabriel. We both came n represented and took top honors. Gabriel had the fastest men's novice spilt of the day under 39min.
Great job to everyone this weekend! I saw some insane performances all around. Next up is another double threat weekend w the Ohio State Critierium Champs on Saturday then packing up and making the trip out to Sandusky for the REV 3 Half Ironman.
