SoNoMas 2016

[Jennifer Hibbitts]

OK Race Fans, So this is my first blog posting, on anything, ever. Unless Facebook counts? I'm a 46 year old mom from Marin County in the Bay Area...sheesh you'd think I would have given my opinion on something on some website along the way. Anyway, this was my 2nd time racing SoNoMas. Last year's SoNoMas was my first real mountain bike race ever. Last year I raced Women's Open Beginner category - short course - and came in 2nd - Podium!- and suffered. Bad. It hurt. This year, for SoNoMas 2016, I have many more MTB races under my belt and even finished Leadville 100 MTB last year (but that's another story). Going into SoNoMas 2016, I was nervous and excited. I was signed up for Women's Sport - a step up from last year. I was worried I was going to run out of gas for the last 30% of the course like last year. I wanted to be able to ride as hard as possible but still have enough energy and juice in the legs to finish the whole course solid without having to push my bike up the relentless punchy hills for the last part of the course.
The day started cold and cloudy. What was the outfit of choice? Of course my Acme jersey. But vest, leg warmers, arm warmers? What's a girl to do? I didn't want to take off my down jacket. Settled on jersey, bike shorts and arm warmers. Ended up a good choice. Freeze at the start and minimize fiddling with clothing along the way.
I started at the back of the pack, and still managed to get passed by everyone up the road for approx 4 miles to the start of the dirt for the Short Course. I was so focused on not letting adrenaline get the better of me like last year, not redlining the heart rate out the gate. I was with 3 other women at the transition to the dirt. It's a tough up and over a guard rail embedded in dirt. Gal ahead of me gave it a go, and fell over still clipped in. Ouch. Passed her , got onto dirt and focused on the ride ahead. The course was in good shape. I had thought it was possibly going to be a mud bog slog. But no. Very few sections of mud. There were still the requisite river crossings and wet shoes.
I was feeling good and strong, and started to pick off the women that had gotten ahead of me up the road at the start. And the sun had come out! I focused on riding as steady as possible uphill and not blowing out the heart rate and going as fast as possible downhill while recovering and getting heart rate down. I remember exactly where Levi Leipheimer passed me last year (he and other Long Course riders were behind me, fast approaching). This year he passed me approx 5 miles further into the course, so I knew I was doing better than last year. There were a lot of downed trees across the trail over the last sections of the course, so lots of on and off the bike. At the last rest stop I was out of water and so glad to get a new bottle of water. Had a Clif block and kept motoring. Was happy to see the transition to the road, put it in the big gear and raced downhill to the finish. My goal was to finish in 3:30. I started down hill with 4 minutes to spare. Would I make it? Could I go under 3:30? Ended up crossing the line with time of 3:32:47. Second in Women's Sport out of 9. I was happy with my finish time and happy that I didn't feel completely wrecked at the end. Paella and Lagunitas beer for the racers and sunshine. A great day for a MTB race. Hmmmm....Expert category for me next year? Stay tuned!