Recap

I've reached the point where so much has happened in the last 2 weeks that attempting to blog about it all would give me blisters on my fingers and you a headache. Sorry about that.

I did do the Laramie Enduro, a great 70-miler on July 31. It went well. Not great, but coming off a rest week into a race is always hard and I was glad that my legs finally started to come around after almost 4 hours of pedaling into my 5:37 race. I had a pretty frightening crash about 20 minutes in the race which spooked me pretty good and bruised/scraped the entire left side of my body. A minor skin donation and a major blow to the confidence was about all that happened, nothing major. I felt stronger and stronger as the race went on and that was a great sign for things to come! Laramie was a phenomenal race and should be on every ultra racer's to do list. The organization was great, the course markings were abundant and it was a super-tough course, all at altitude.

A shot of the Peaks Trail. My favorite ride in Summit County.

From Laramie I headed to my sister's place for a visit and then to Frisco, CO. Rather than add an additional 18 hours in the car to my already crazy August schedule, I decided to set myself and Maddy up in a condo so I could start acclimating, resting, catching up on grad work and visit with family. Nate has been in Park City for 2 weeks working for Giant at their dealer event, so I wasn't too psyched to be home alone anyway. It's been a great stay although it's been raining more than usual throughout the past week.

I raced the Mountain States Cup at Keystone on Saturday. It was the best xc course I have ridden all year! Plus, I figured the 2, 10-mile loops, each with 2,000 feet of climbing up to 10,900 feet would be great breathing practice. I basically went out and rode the race at my 100-mile race starting pace and it worked out well. I felt great, never hit the red zone and despite a very calculated race plan and a quick wrong turn I still landed myself on the last step of the podium with my teammate Judy!


I have only ridden up in Leadville once since I got here. I'll head up there tomorrow and maybe Wednesday but that's all. The hardest part about being here is NOT riding. Summit county has phenomenal trails everywhere and all this rain has made it super tacky and fun. My reward for finishing Leadville on Saturday is that I get to ride my new 5" Felt Virtue on Sunday and Monday! Nate's at home building it now and is bringing it down tomorrow.

Hopefully I'll sneak in another post this week before Saturday. In case you didn't catch all my hints, Saturday is the Leadville 100. Despite all the hoop-la circling around the stacked men's field, there are in fact women racing too and I'll be one of them!