SCX #5 Sprinker Park

Whew what a day yesterday.
We arrived at Sprinker Park around 8:30am and the rain started to fall. I was actually pretty excited for it because we have not had a good rainy race yet other then Starcrossed so I welcomed the rain to get some cross weather.
Sprinker is a great venue, a huge parking lot so you have pavement to set your tents up on and then the course has a lot of grassy corners and some great sand to ride/run through with a long flat pavements section into the finish line.
I got out and did a practice lap and right away knew I needed to run my Bulldogs. They were the perfect tire on that course with those wet corners and little bit of mud. I also had to pump them up just a few more PSI then normal because there are a lot of rocks on that course and I remember last year we had a lot of flats there. So I went with 35psi up front and 40psi in the rear. Pretty high for me but I felt more comfortable in my mind know I wouldn't pinch flat at the PSI.
We lined up on the line and the rain lightened up quite a bit. We had 10 cat 1-2 women at this race. I am always happy when we have more then one call up line!!
They said go and we were off. I got my pedal right away but as soon as I started I knew I wasn't going to have to much in my legs. I just didn't have my normal snap and I felt really tired. So I tried the best I could to keep the whole shot but Jadine Riley with Group Health passed me in the corner going into the barriers. I struggled with getting the legs over the barriers and got back on and Beth Lynn-Griffith from Haggens passed us and got a little gap. I knew I had to jump on or it was over. So I gave it all I had and got on her wheel. I stayed there for 3 laps total then she went down in the sand. I used that to my advantage and took off. I tried to go as hard as I could to get a bigger gap which worked. I knew I didn't have the legs today so once I got about 10sec I just tried to hang on in the lead. I managed to pull enough together and grew my lead to 20sec but had a little brain fart going into the finish stretch which has two gradual turns around these 2 trees and I made the first one fine but thought I had just did the second one so I punched it and realized I still had a turn and ran into the tape. I locked up the breaks and got stopped and back on the course but lost 10sec to finish with the win by 10sec.
Overall a good race, I was up late the night before at our Open House for our new Cycle U location in West Seattle and then didn't sleep to well that night with only 4 hours of good sleep. So I really think that is why I was feeling so tired during the race. Lesson learned, get more sleep, I can't race well on 4 hours only!!
Beth and the other ladies all rode really hard yesterday. They really pushed me and made me hurt. It is so awesome to see our Elite women's group really stepping in up. I love racing here in the Seattle area!!! Nice work ladies.
Next weekend is the State Champs on Sat and the Final race of the MFG on Sunday. I am very excited and plan to get lots of rest this week so I am not tired and ready to rock next weekend.

Wanted to also say Congrats to my Husband Chad, who turned 36 yesterday, got 3rd in the Cat 1-2 Master Men's race. He had a great race on his Birthday and was very happy with his performance!!

And to Holden my son, who finished 4th out of 14 boys in the 10-12 Beginner 1 lap Cat. He is only 8 and is still placing in the top 5, awesome job Holden!! I love those 2 guys so much!!
Kristi