Lets see, shoes, helmet, gloves, chamois, jersey, water bottles, number, safety pins. Am I forgetting something? You guessed it, I raced my mtn bike today. Mexico City has its own mountain bike league and today was the first race in the series. Yesterday, I took Endo to Los Dinamos to pre-ride the course. I promptly emailed my cycling friend Lenny when I got home to tell him how the course was. This is what I told him, "We are going to die!" The course was a 6km loop with some very steep climbing on what we would consider fire roads, then some sweet single track, AND then the descent. These Mexicans are crazy. Here is a picture of one portion of the descent.
Lenny wanted to get to the race early so we arrived two hours before the race began. I wasn't sure what to do with myself as I am used to showing up to races Erin Huck and Megan style, which is just barely making it to the starting line in time with our numbers pinned. Here I am refusing to chamois up prior to an hour before the race. However I did prepare for the race in Miguel fashion by going out dancing until 2am the night before my race. Gotta love life in Mexico.
I decided to race the Feminil Experta category. They started us (all 2 of us) with the Elite (Pro) woman (all 3 of them). The 3 Elite women were not only fit but could descend extremely well and after the first climb I never saw them again except when the leader lapped me on the crazy descent. Anyway, I battled it out with the other Experta woman, Mariely, and she ended up taking the win. I would gain a ton of time on her on the climb and she would gain it all back on the descent. But a friend was made during the battle. Mariely and I are going to start riding together as she lives in my neighborhood. Here we are on the podium.
I have to say that racing today was SO MUCH fun. The descent was crazy but with each lap I rode more of it and had a grin across my face every time I made it down a difficult part. I am looking forward to the rest of the season.
Lenny wanted to get to the race early so we arrived two hours before the race began. I wasn't sure what to do with myself as I am used to showing up to races Erin Huck and Megan style, which is just barely making it to the starting line in time with our numbers pinned. Here I am refusing to chamois up prior to an hour before the race. However I did prepare for the race in Miguel fashion by going out dancing until 2am the night before my race. Gotta love life in Mexico.
I decided to race the Feminil Experta category. They started us (all 2 of us) with the Elite (Pro) woman (all 3 of them). The 3 Elite women were not only fit but could descend extremely well and after the first climb I never saw them again except when the leader lapped me on the crazy descent. Anyway, I battled it out with the other Experta woman, Mariely, and she ended up taking the win. I would gain a ton of time on her on the climb and she would gain it all back on the descent. But a friend was made during the battle. Mariely and I are going to start riding together as she lives in my neighborhood. Here we are on the podium.
I have to say that racing today was SO MUCH fun. The descent was crazy but with each lap I rode more of it and had a grin across my face every time I made it down a difficult part. I am looking forward to the rest of the season.
1 comment:
Megan, you are such a stud! I love reading about your adventures.
Post a Comment