Cool Cool

[Amanda Borden]

Cool was fun this year!  Not easy for me but that can be expected.  Perhaps similar to our buddy Mike, but even more so, I am not prepared for this season.  Time eludes me and my priorities are still not aligned with racing but I'm going to keep working on weaving it in and maybe next year this report will be different.  After taking 2011 off from racing (and most of 2010 - my last race was the Tamarancho Race June '10), I felt better at the end of this race than I felt last time & although my legs stopped working my heart was just fine.

I had an amusing start - asking politely if I could get by a few racers in the singlespeed group after my group had already taken off.  My race results have never been determined in the start, however.  I prefer to watch everyone for a while to determine strengths & weaknesses - I pace from afar (when I'm in shape to do so).  After a few minutes I had passed two riders that appeared to be in my group (19-39 Cat 1 women).  I'm still unclear who they were since I finished 2nd of 2 in my class but that doesn't matter - I never even saw the girl who beat me until she was standing next to me on the podium.  I have a lot of work ahead of me if I want to be competitive in Cat 1.

The conditions were certainly better than when I raced Cool in 2010.  The mud was worst at the lap end with the largest creek crossing much more manageable than I remember and overall much better dirt & weather than I was expecting - especially after the rain started falling temporarily upon our arrival.  I had three goals for the race - to finish, to not be lapped by Jim & to not get last place.  I finished.  Hopefully next race I'll get closer to meeting all three :)

[Ryan Gibson]

Good effort and attitude Mandy....and thank you again for saving me with co2!