12 Hours of Mesa Verde Redemption

This is my second year doing 12 Hours of Mesa Verde, and I had one goal in mind for this race--to greatly improve from the year before.  Last year when I did the race I was fresh off of my heart surgery.  I thought things would go well at that race, but well let's just say that was when I learned the upcoming year was going to  be a year of recovery.  For me the race this year was a pinnacle, a turning point from where I have been and where I am going.

This year I raced with some great gals Sally and Heather--our team name Cranky Cowgirls (theme for the race was western).  Heather started us off, with Sally second and me third.  Heather and Sally killed it on their laps and then it was my turn.  I started out strong, in fact a little too strong.  I was going to hard at the first and was worried I would end up blowing up.  I kept telling myself to slow down a little bit, but no go, I kept going.  Eventually I did settle in and started going at an even, fast pace.  About half way through the course I looked at my time and saw I was ahead of my goal--I was feeling great, everything was falling in to place.  Then it happened, I crashed!  I didn't just crash, I flipped my bike and landed hard on the ground with a huge grunt, startling all of the people behind me.  I jumped up, moved my bike off the trail and let a train of people ride by.  I saw two women in our division go and began to panic--what if I lost our place, what if I ruined everything Sally and Heather had done.  As soon as the trained passed I hopped on my bike and proceeded to catch up.  In less than one mile I crashed again!  This time nothing major, but once again I had to let a train of people go by and fix my brake--ugh, all that time lost.  From here til the end I flew, hoping to make up for lost time.  Results, I improved my lap time by 15 minutes from last year!  Of course all I could think was if only I hadn't crashed how much faster my lap time would have been.  My biggest concern, not letting my team down.



 I wish I could say my second lap was great, but alas it was not.  Both my laps were in the heat of the day, but my second was in the prime of the heat.  Coming from 40 to 80 degrees just does not seem to agree with me--I can't wait to for it to get warm, so I can start to acclamate to the heat.  The other issue, I drank a very heavy milk product inbetween laps.  I know better than to drink milk during a race, I don't know what was I was thinking--I guess you could say I wasn't.  Needless to say when I left for my second lap I was sick,  all I could think about was throwing up, I even tried about mile 3, but without success.  I felt so miserable, my legs didn't want to go and I all I could hope for was to get through the lap and not lose our place.  My goal had changed from killing it on my lap to making sure no woman passed me and I passed any woman I could see.  I felt so miserable I was sure it took me an hour longer to do this lap.  Lucky for me that was not the case.  I only lost us 8 minutes, and no women passed me....whew. 

Heather coming in on her final lap.

Heather wrapped us up with the final lap and our team held on for a poduim win of 5th place.  The teams this year were much faster than last.  To put it into perspective the first two teams were retired pros and pros, and beat last years times by over an hour.  I can't begin to say how cool it was to race with Heather and Sally and podium.  What a great comeback from last year, and what a fun, fun race.  I am so looking forward to returning and racing here again.

Awesome team mates, awesome team!

12 Hours Mesa Verde Race

So you are probably wondering why I would register for a 12 hour race right after my surgery. Well, the truth is I registered before I knew I needed the surgery. When the doctor told me I needed surgery, he also told me I would be on my bike in 4 weeks, so although I knew I wouldn’t be in tip top shape, I thought it would be doable. Truth be told had I not registered before the surgery I never would have, but I did and I am glad I did, because it was a blast.


The Mesa Verde race is one of the most fun races I have been to. The course although long (17.23 miles), and technical, has some of the most fun downhill that makes every little bit of pain you go through worth it.

There was a large contingency of people there from Utah, and we totally represented. We also had a great group of Mad Dog Riders there—Brad & Dwight did a duo, Bill did 12 hour solo, Reed did a 12 hour solo, and KC & Chris Co-ed duo. We also had two women’s teams for the 3-4 female teams. I remember a time when I struggled to get people to ride a 12 hour race, and here were 7 women racing—way exciting.

The day started out great. Good temperatures and a slight breeze. For riding it was perfect, for sitting around and waiting your turn it was a little chilly. Since I was the last rider on our team I got to sit around and take pictures. Lucky me I also, got to see Dave Wiens race right by us, too bad I didn’t have my camera ready. I also had a moment of running to the bathroom a couple of times. I thought it was pre-nerve race jitters, turns out it wasn’t.

It wasn’t long before it was my turn to race. I went out on the course, and basically mentally sabotaged myself for almost the entire lap. I started out sick to my stomach and trying to throw up my banana for about the first 4 miles. During this time I kept thinking many depreciating thoughts of “how I sucked” “I am fat” “I am slow” “I can’t even climb hills on my bike anymore” “I am letting my team down”. I tried and tried to get rid of these thoughts, but no matter what I did they stayed. It didn’t help that many, many people rode by me, and the majority of those people said “keep up the good work, you’re doing great”. I must have looked pretty pathetic.

I did have one moment where I almost got rid of these thoughts. I had the thought of “Well at least Wendy is still behind me”. Not 10 minutes later she rode by me—oh the irony—you really have to laugh.

Because of my mental state I rode the rocky technical portion like a sissy girl. What I had easily cleared the day before, I now was bouncing around and struggling to ride. During this time KC passed me, and said “ride safe”. A mile later I had a hard endo, which ending up breaking my right shifter—it was usable, but was sticking straight out which changed my grip.

Sometime after my endo, I made it to the sweet downhill section. It was here that my attitude began to change. During the downhill I really began to enjoy the ride. I was hooping and hollering, and I found that I was passing people, and leaving many guys in the dust. Considering how many people had left me in the dust, this was a good feeling. I loved it when I cleared a section and 3 people were walking their bikes down this section. I needed these little accomplishments to help shake all the negativity I was carrying around.

Eventually I came in right at 2 hours. This may sound long, but when I left I was scared I would take 2 ½ hours. I felt a flood of relief and joy, knowing I made it in. Back at our site Bill’s wife Robin really helped me put things into perspective. I know my health has not been great, and I know I have been off my bike, but it was really hard to accept. I want to be back to my strong, healthy former self. However she helped me see the more realistic side of things which helped.

It turns out my pre-race visits to the bathroom was not nerves. Instead I had bad stomach cramps, and diarrhea which sent me to the bathroom 7 times. I was so cramped up, I spent Jen’s entire lap and part of Tiffany’s in the chair curled up like a ball. Luckily by the time I had to race again, I had nothing left to come out (at least that’s what I was hoping).

My second lap was much, much better than my first. Despite all the stomach issues I left riding good, and hard. I felt so good as I rode, and for this lap I had nothing but positive thoughts. I kept thinking “you rock” “you are going fast” “you just had heart surgery 6 weeks ago and look how you are riding”. Amazing what a difference those thoughts made. I was riding fast enough that the first half of the course I shaved 5 minutes off my previous time. Had my legs not actually fatigued by mile 11 I think I could have shaved almost 10 minutes off. But about the time I finished climbing Moki’s hill my legs decided they were tired. I spun and spun, but there was not a lot of push. Luckily it was not long before the downhill.

This time on the downhill I slowed down a bit. I didn’t want to crash. It was very important I cross in time for Jen to go out one last time. I was tired, and when you’re tired you can crash, so I took it a bit slower, and made it in across the finish line shaving 2 minutes off my previous lap time!

Our team ended up taking 7th out of 15 women’s teams, and the other Mad Dog women’s team took 6th. At one point we were vying for 5th with an all professional women’s team—what an accomplishment.

Although this course really beats you up, I can’t wait to race it again next year, and if I am lucky I will another great bunch of gals to race with.
My team.  Check out the sunset in the background.

The other Mad Dog Women's Team - they totally rocked!