So after many glasses of wine I let Amy, Christine, and Lindsay convince me to go to Eau Claire and do the WORS race. Amy picked me up Sat. afternoon and we arrived at the course around 5. I went out with Rachael and Amelia for the pre ride. This was my first time on this course so I really needed to make sure I got the feel for the course. After the first lap Rachael did the rock drop and then headed back to the lot while Amelia and I went around again. The course was fun with lots and lots of single track. This as we know isn't my strong suit so I needed to make sure I got a good start and used the faster areas as best I could.

Sun. came and during the citizens race we go a little thunderstorm that had me on the phone with Kevin freaking out a bit. Luckily the rain stopped as quickly as it started and actually made the course less dusty. Once again I didn't get a call up since I skipped some races and lined up in the second row behind Christine. Don yelled go and I worked my way up towards the front group. In the pines I noticed we had a big gap on the second group and then as we hit the section where the rock drop was we came to a dead stop before even entering that part of the trail. After some dabbing and trying to get back in the pedal I was headed for a tree and decided to run the rock drop. While we were standing in line the rest of the girls had caught up to us so now we were in a big line. I managed to ride the first lap well and went into the second lap with Murphy Kate. Decided to pass on the rock drop and run it and this became a very bad move on my part. A ton of comp guys were coming through at the same time and since I was the one off my bike I had to wait until there was an opening to get going and unfortunately this was a long time. By then Murphy Kate was up ahead a ways and Amelia ended up closing the gap on me. Amelia passed me and worked her magic through the single track as I tried to keep it smooth and keep her close. Murphy Kate had a mechanical on the right handed uphill switch back, so we passed her. The smooth part was more like lumpy but I was able to get on Amelia's wheel at the big root towards the end of lap. I then just sat there and let her take me around. Before the rock drop I told her I was going to run it and she said she was going to ride it. Good call on her part, bad on mine again but I had lost my nerve and figured safer was better. Amelia used this opportunity to gap me and I rode the rest of the race on my own coming in 11th overall, 3rd in age group. I am pretty happy with that since this was such a technical course and had a great time racing it. (sorry no links or pictures, not on regular computer)~holly