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Queen of the Hill


with my great friends, Jeanette and Amber

Yes. I know. It's been a long time. I have been writing plenty of entertaining blog posts in my head while training but I don't seem to find the time to put them down in actual writing. But don't worry, you haven't missed (too) much.

Short update: We are not in Germany anymore. After a little two-week stint back home in Flagstaff, we are now in Utah! Hooray! I love myself a little Utah vacation!

We got into town on Tuesday night just in time for the Wonder Woman Hill Climb on Wednesday. I warmed up with a swim in the morning, a visit to 7 Peaks Water Park with the whole family, and a 20-mile ride to the race venue. Certainly my kind of day! The hill climb was put on by Coach M and was basically a lovely reunion of friends! So fun!

I had no idea what to expect. I had never done that climb since it's just a little outside of my usual Utah cycling radius. So I decided to just see what the real cyclists (I don't consider myself a cyclist or a runner. I am a triathlete...) would do and follow them. One girl in particular seemed to be keen on winning, so I glued myself to her back wheel. For about 0.5 miles. Then I started to get bored and/or worried. I think it was a combination of This is kinda fun but now let's change things up a bit and I really don't want to have to sprint to the finish line. Then I remembered Coach M's plan which said something like: I want this to be an all-out effort. It didn't say: I want you to win this race. She wanted me to kill myself and see at what point I would pass out. As usual. If I blow up half-way through, so what?

So I went. It was a small field of 35 women but I have to admit that it was so fun to attack. I have never competed in a bike race, so this was a first. And I had a blast! I've watched my fair share of Tours de France, so I figured I would put my head down for a while and hammer up the hill, then look back and if a whole bunch of women were still on my wheel, then I would drop back, draft some, and attack again. It sounded like great fun but when I looked back there was nobody on my wheel. Bummer! So I put my head down some more because I was worried I had made a wrong move and they were going to fly by me later.

Suddenly I was close to the top and nobody had come by yet! Sweet! I was certainly glad I didn't disappoint Coach HT or my friends, Jen and Tony, who were timing the race. I was wishing I could do the two-hands-in-the-air-fist-pump-thingy they do at the Tour but, sadly, I don't really know how to take both hands off the handle bars on this bike without tipping over...

I was stoked to see my fellow triathlon friends, Jeanette and Amber, take 2nd and 3rd. I love racing with friends! Eventually we rode/flew back down to the start where we had a little party with all the other ladies. And, yes, they did make me wear a crown and I didn't even mind... Then I rode back home. Almost. It got too dark and so I decided to hang out at Carlee's house until Karl would come and get me. Thank you, friends and husband, for taking such good care of me!


PS: Wonder Woman is putting on an amazing ride (short, middle, or century) in Payson, Utah in September. I highly recommend it to girls of all abilities! Come out and play with us!

PPS: Entry fee was $15 and I walked away with a pair of earrings, a necklace, a water bottle, a gift certificate to i-Tunes, and a free massage. Wow! I would like to have more of these kinds of races around!





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