Frustration @ Fat Tire Frenzy

I'm frustrated with my race today - I felt good at the start. Got into a good rhythm, was handling the trail and its obstacles pretty well. Managed to ride up and over a few things I've not done in the past (weird uphill tree root, log stack, some uphill switchbacks) then blamm! caught my right pedal/foot on something and was thrown to the ground hard. Immediately after I got up, my right big toe was hurting and the left side of my low back, but the worst was is inside of my right thigh. I am left to wonder if I caught my right leg on the stem/handlebars when I was thrown forward off of the bike and I think my bike hit me in the back; so I can account for my bruises. I got back up, but my confidence was shaken and of course the adrenaline spike wiped me out for a bit. I was able to ride up another hill, but every bump hit my leg and every time I stood up to ride, the saddle would hit my leg...OW! I debated on quitting at the finish line, but felt decent enough after climbing the deer trail to keep going. As I went through the line to start my 2nd lap, Kenny said my time, I mumbled something about being due a wreck. I acknowledged him that yes I had crashed, but was fine for now. I felt like I could push through my second lap and would just walk any difficult parts.

Well 2 miles later, I quit because my back tire got two more punctures, puked out a bunch of Stans. I wasted a CO2 on it (I had given my pump to another guy who reported when he passed me back that he had lost it.) The tire didn't hold the air very long and by time I crossed over one of the bridges, bottoming the rim on bridge the front tire threw a hissy fit, I got that stopped with Stans, but I decided to quit before I wrecked again. Honestly, I was pissed as I felt ready for this race and was going to try to beat a couple of the sport guys since there were no other women in my category. I was out ahead of two of them by a good bit when I wrecked and close to a third.

Oh well as it turned out, it was probably best that I DNF'd as my best biking pal, Paula had fallen trying to cross the slick rock and dislocated her left shoulder. Long story short, I ended up literally running back to my car from the finish line area and driving over to where my pal was tearfully waiting for assistance with some other racers (the frame pump guy who had found it by the way) and some volunteers. About the time I was helping Paula to the car, her husband arrived. We proceeded to drive her to the hospital - Warren driving (w/o a license) and me in the back seat holding Paula's arm in the best immobile position I could manage. Poor thing!!! She was in severe pain and very upset. I would have been too!!! In the end, the ER doc and staff was awesome, got her drugged up with Morphine and Zofran and successfully popped her shoulder back into place. Looks like she'll be off her bike for a few weeks, but hopefully she'll recover well enough to ride again soon. I miss her already because of my job change and haven't ridden with her in a few weeks. =( I'll forge ahead with my plans to get stronger and ride longer and keep focusing on Conquer the Cove oops Rotor Meltdown in October. I've entered the 5 hour race in Bedford in two weeks. It may be that I wind up teaming up with Warren since he and Paula were registered already as well - that remains to be seen. Either way, I'm still going and I'm going to just do the best I can. I enjoy the people I'm around while I'm racing, so that's reason enough to go back!

Meanwhile, I'm anxiously await UPS to bring me some tires that will hold air. I hope this works. I just want to ride and not worry about flats!!!