Jeni qualifies for MTB Nationals

[TrekJeni]

My race report that I wrote for my team is below. I thought I'd give you gals a little bit more info.

I really brought my A game and even though there was only one competitor in my Novice women's division, I passed several guys and even some that started before me. Unfortunately (for him) one of the guys I passed was my SO and he started two minutes ahead of me. I panicked.

Sure I was happy I was doing so well but I was worried that I had caught and was passing my honey. How was his ego going to react! He was really having a bad day. He smokes me every time we ride. After my race I went down to the start / finish line to wait. There was some awkward silence from both of us. I tried to tell him to shake it off and that we all have our bad days but it's easier to say those words than accept them.

And now for my race report -----

Today was the ninth race of the Ohio Mountain Bike Championship series. It was at Ceaser's Creek - about halfway between Cincinnati and Columbus. It was forecasted to be hot, humid, and muggy with a chance of showers in the afternoon.

The day started out on the wrong foot. Oh, we managed to get up in time and we managed to not miss the exit but I burned my eyeball instead!

How the hell does one burn their eyeball? Well, I'll tell you. When someone is really really tired and can't find her contact solution and puts her hydrogen peroxide based cleaning solution (the stuff that bubbles and cleans your contacts) in her contact case telling herself that she will remember to rinse her contacts really well before putting them in her eyes she probably will not do that. In fact, she will put her contact in her right eye and then be convinced that she has poured acid into her eyeball and it's being eaten alive. I was doubled over in pain with one hand keeping my eye open while I feverishly pawed at my eye to get the contact out. Whew. It was instantly red and swollen. For the next 45 minutes it felt like I had straw in it every time I blinked.

Fortunately, that was the end of the drama for the day.

I just bought a new Gary Fisher full suspension 29er. For those that have no idea what that means it has two shocks - one front one back versus my hardtail (only front shock). It also has 29 inch wheels to roll over everything versus the standard 26 inch wheels that only get over most stuff. Compared to my hard tail, she's like driving a 4 wheel drive pickup through creek beds versus a Hyundai (my apologies to the Hyundai crowd). On a course like Ceasers Creek, I welcomed it.

I needed to only finish to win the Cincinnati Off Road Alliance series (CORA). This was one of CORA's points races and happened to be the #9 stop on the Ohio Championship series also. I started with the Veteran's Novice Men as there was only myself and one other Novice female entered. The start was a cluster.

Everyone was jockeying for position and I had several near wipe outs while others wiped out around me. I thought, "This is ridiculous!" It seems to happen to me all the time when I start with the guys. I try to keep up with them instead of just focusing on my female competitors. Settled into a pace I liked and got to work. I systematically picked off several guys one by one with my even pace. I was surprised to find myself passing men that had started in the heats before me. These were guys that had started anywhere between 1 and 3 minutes ahead of me. There were a lot of hills with roots that were very technical. This was the toughest race of my season.

The race was attending by many and at last count there were 20+ DNF's due to the difficulty of the course and the Africa Hot weather conditions. After my race, I got some water and went back out to cheer on other riders. I staged myself where several onlookers were stationed along with a course marshall that told you to turn left (up to the finish line) or right (back into the bowels of hell) depending on if you were done or still had more laps. Several riders were told they had more laps to go and elected to drop out instead. There were a lot of exhausted people out there. I heard of one broken collarbone and a possible broken arm. Most people suffered at least one endo and bruising along with ripped jerseys and shorts were common.

All in all, I love my new bike. I have worked my butt off all this season to put in some good times and it's all coming together now. My only concern is that I have peaked too soon and that I'll not have enough for cyclocross season. I was hoping the Seven Hills heckling club (you know who you are) would be out to cheer on Newman, Geoff and myself.

At the end of the day, I ended up winning the Novice Women's division which means I also win the CORA series but even more laughable (in a serious way) is that I QUALIFIED for NATIONALS (something that I hadn't realized or had even contemplated until someone congratulated me)!!!!!! The 09 venue hasn't been announced (not that I could find) but I had planned on competing at Cross Nationals in 09. There is no way that I can take two week long cycling trips next year!

A special "Hi" to Jeffery snapping pictures.for Biowheels. Thanks for suffering out there with us. It sure was hot.

Streamers (without matching streamers on the Gary Fisher HiFi Pro 29er yet)

[KnottedYet]

Congratulations!
I just love the way things have turned out for you!

[Wahine]

Wow, way to go!! And trust me, your SO will get over it,

[Kathi]

Jeni, congratulations on doing well with your race. Your report brings back memories of my early days of mtn biking. I used to ride at Ceaser's Creek. At one time Bio Wheels was my fav Cincy bike shop. I bought one of my mtn bikes from them when they were a new shop in the Ludlow Garage in Clifton. Matt, the owner, tried to get me interested in racing but it didn't appeal to me.

Speaking of the CSC, I just did a 380 mile bike tour called Candisc in N. Dakota. The very first day I met a woman with a CSC jersey on. She's from the west side and graduated from my high school, Harrison. Her sister was in my class. No matter how far you roam from Cincy you run into people you know.

We know lots of CSC'ers and just got sent some pics from the Starbucks Urban Ride. After living in Colorado for 4 years Cincy looks so flat now, I asked "where are the mtns"?

[dirtygirl1]

Nice work - all the best at Nationals!

[SadieKate]

Congratulations! That's wonderful!

[SheFly]

Congrats! And FWIW, Nationals next year are moving from New England to Colorado. Next year's venue will be SolVista. Not as close to home for us as Mount Snow was the past two years....

Congrats again on a superb finish!

SheFly

[spindizzy]

Congrats!

[teigyr]

Yay!!!!!

Sounds like fun. Yeah, your SO will adapt. They are resilient creatures.

Burning your eyeball sounds like something I would do. Ouch.

It sounds like you had a great time!!! The most important thing is it seems like you had fun. Fun is good.

[TahoeDirtGirl]

Girl, this was just what I needed to read! Thank you for a great race report! This year was supposed to be 'my year' and well...it was the year of tendonitis, starting a divorce and the stomach flu that wouldn't leave. Not to mention adjusting to the New England terrain. I felt like hanging it all up this month, but several things, including reading a report that sums up hard work=results really helped!

Hopefully I can figure out how the whole Root 66 series and ride next year. Anyone that wants to give me some pointers, PM me

[mudmucker]

Wow. You rock ! Great report and congratulations.

And great for chickin' all those guys during the race, even if one was your honey.