An athlete's account of undergoing breast cancer treatment: Let the racing begin......

Yep. Race season is underway and it is awesome! When I was first building my race schedule earlier this year, I had every intention to ease into racing. I planned to not do my first 50 miler until July and to not race any distance greater than 50 miles this year. Arbitrary, I know, but something to guide my return to racing nonetheless. I have followed this to a certain degree, however I keep bumping up those deadlines. For example, I am now planning on racing my first 50 miler in June (not July) and have already registered for a 100k. I guess at this point, it is safe to say, that I'm not ruling anything out. So much for arbitrary timelines. I'm psyched!

Speaking of racing, last weekend was the first Utah State Championship Series race and was held in Alpine, Utah at Lambert Park. Last year, I experienced this race as a reluctant volunteer. Reluctant, not because I didn't want to support the super awesome promotors of this series, but because I really wanted to be racing. I watched all the local pro girls riding well and duking it out, and I wanted to be part of it. This year, I was a racer! It is waaay more fun to be a racer! (Okay, enough exclamation points, I think it is clear that I am excited about racing)!!!!!

Like I already mentioned, The Lambert Park race is part of the Utah State Championship Series. The promotors of this second year series seem to know a thing or two about putting together quality events, and perhaps that is why this particular race tripled in participant numbers since last year. These guys design fun courses with ample passing and real singletrack. Race registration is efficient. Race results are posted quickly and awards are done in a timely manner. And there is actually a decent pro payout. Needless to say, I'm planning on being a RACER for the entire 4-race series.

As for the race, it went pretty well. I finished 3rd behind Erica Tingey and Kathy Sherwin once again. Overall, I felt good, and am proud of how I raced, but still have some areas to improve upon. The one thing I notice as I do more races (and I have now done four- so hopefully this isn't premature to report) is that the pain associated with racing is a thing of the past. Sure, going as hard as you can hurts, but now it hurts in such a good way. Racing my mountain bike makes me feel healthy and strong and ALIVE. Complete contrast to how I felt at this time last year.

I'll leave the detailed race reporting to the professionals, since I lack the motivation to talk about myself anymore. Check out MTBRacenews.com for a race report, more photos, and results.

Some photos from the weekend: