MFG #1 Finn HIll Kirkland

What a day!! Sunday was the first MFG race of the season, Kick off to Cross race and was sponsored by my team, Cycle U!

I spent the early part of the morning helping run registration and get things organized with the team volunteers. There were a lot of things to cover and our Cycle U team stepped up and helped make this race a huge success!

So of course I had a crazy morning and was behind on eating and getting my warm up in. So I did the best I could and got in a quick lap and got the tire pressure dialed in on the new Crux and jumped on the trainer for a quick 20min warm up. I wasn't feeling all that ready but I got to the start and gave it everything I had.

My legs were ok for the start, I got on Jenni Gaertner's wheel and sat there up to the first hill turn around and then took the lead. I held that for a short period of time, when Kari Studley came by me. I tried so hard to stay on her wheel but my legs just weren't warmed up enough and locked up a bit on me. I had to settle in a bit in hopes that they would open up by lap 2. So Kari was getting a good gap on me, and Jenni was bringing me in so I decided I had to give one lap as hard as I could to drop Jenni. It worked, I brought Kari back in a bit but just not enough. So I kept up the hard effort and stayed pretty consistent through each lap and held onto 2nd place.

Overall a good race, having not raced any Road or Mountain this summer I was a little nervous as to how I would do in these first few races. But I am pleasantly surprised how good I feel and I think this is going to be an awesome season for sure!!

My husband had a bad day, on Sat the day before the race he ran 220 floors in one of the building down town in support of 9/11 and all the fallen firefighters and police officers. So his legs were a little tired and he just couldn't get them work for him. And he had a really bad crash that sent him flying so he was pretty beat up. But the Tower climb was for sure more important! He will be back in a couple weeks to kick some butt for sure!

And my son Holden had a great race. He race without us this time, and did 2 full laps. He is so darn cute and just loves all his supporters out there on the course. He had a blast and we just need to teach him to shift!!

We will not be at the races this weekend as we will be in ID. Chad's dad is getting married so we are traveling over there on Sat to share in their day!!

Good luck to everyone that is racing, it is going to rain so plan for mud!!