Grindin' at Galena

I am a dork and forgot to take pictures. Bad blogger, bad. If there is one race venue that deserves a few pics it's the Galena Grinder. Just 25 miles north of Sun Valley, this place is a little slice of heaven.

I woke up at 6am to frost covering my tent and did NOT want to get out of my sleeping bag. What happened to summer?!? After hitting snooze 4 times, I finally dragged myself out of bed, brewed up some coffee, put on every article of clothing I brought and started the day. The weather report said nothing of this so all I had were flip flops and a raincoat. Brrrrr.

In short, I had a good day on the bike and came away with the Idaho State Marathon Championship title. I did it in 4 hrs and 31 min (according to my computer-no official times posted yet) and suffered during every single minute of the race. I could tell from my warm up (low HR) that it was going to be a battle for my tired legs, so I knew what I was in for.

The course was a hoot, true to Knobby Tire Series racing. Tons of great singletrack, a variety of climbs ranging from long, middle-ring grunts to steep hike-a-bikes, stream crossings and screaming fast double-track descents. There wasn't much time for recovery anywhere on the course, so I pretty much kept it pinned the whole time. I had a super-strong woman on my tail the entire race and was only able to pull away from her during the last 30 min. during the final hike-a-bike. I don't think I have had to work that hard in a race all year and it was certainly more stressful than I would have preferred! It hurt, but it was a good hurt. :)

I have to give a shout out to Davey, Matt and the entire KTS crew. They did a fantastic job putting the race together and it was the best marked endurance course I have ever ridden. The after party was fun, lunch and beer were free and the prizes for all categories were great. (They always give equal payout to men and women!) Although tallying the results took them longer than they wanted, it gave me an opportunity to meet a bunch of new people, catch up with some old friends and to share race stories. I even got to hang out with our team mechanic (on the west coast) Paul Clark. He and a bunch of pals drove all the way out from Oregon for the race and it was a great surprise to wake up in the morning to find that he and his friends had put down their sleeping bags right next to my car after I had already gone to sleep.

The word on the compression Skins: LOVE them. They made my legs feel much better on the long ride home. Plus, I saw the Pro Men's marathon winner, Evan Plews, wearing them after the race. He's so darn fast, if he's wearing them, they must be cool!