Long overdue reflections on 2019....

It's been a tough year from a bike racing standpoint. Despite the billing of 2nd year as the 'bad' one, 3rd year proved to be a whole different beast with about 60% night shifts. Turns out burn-out is a thing. Shear exhaustion from work coupled with the cost of traveling/entry fees/bike maintenance/etc with an impending (very expensive) move basically forced me out of the first half of the season. The couple races I tried to get off to do, my scheduler had me working until 11pm the day before a race that was 4 hours away and then right back after for another shift early the next morning. I couldn't do it.

There was one event thought that I had blocked off vacation for over a year in advance...Il Giro D'ville! 4 days of riding bikes in the Virginia mountains with friends and camping. Last year I hadn't been able to do the full-pull thanks to a 30hr pulm critical care overnight call but I was all in this year!

Team Time Trial-- Moonstompers + Coco

Slumming between stages

Finally, at the end of June, I finished Emergency Medicine residency and moved all the way across the country to Palo Alto, CA to start a two-year pediatric EM fellowship at Stanford. Unfortunately, the first couple of months of a new residency/fellowship have a lot of orientation & required activities that limited my ability to  request much for the first couple of months and the race schedule was left up to fate...

Race #1--
Mid-drive between Jackson (parents' house) and SF, a friend asked if I could get to Carson City that night. Why? Oh right, because Carson City Off-Roads Pro Backcountry was the next day. Bless my mother for putting up with a 13 hour drive (in a moving van, towing my car!) to get me there at 12:30am for a very last minute first race of the season. First race for the new Santa Cruz Tallboy 3 CC and oh my gosh I love that bike! Despite feeling wholly unprepared I surprised myself and came away with 15th in a stacked Pro Women's field and got to enjoy some of what will be my new weekend stomping grounds for the next couple of years!

Chasing Kaysee Armstrong on Flume Trail

Flume Trail

Race #2-- 

My schedule happened to shake out so I had the weekend of July 13th off and I found that Tahoe Trail 100K was that weekend. Now mind you, I had zero interest in racing Leadville and couldn't have anyway with my schedule, but was excited to explore more of the Tahoe area and do some more racing. I contacted the Stanford Cycling group and found out several of them were heading up as well so the weekend was definitely improved more by meeting new folks and finding new riding buddies!

Although not too suprising for a Leadville qualifier, a huge portion of the course was fireroad but the singletrack was still fun and the course challenging. I'm used to riding wet roots/rocks of the East Coast, but the West Coast dry dusty conditions are definitely something I'm having to learn how to ride. Nailed a rock and got tossed with a hard crash on a fast downhill fireroad near the end of the second lap. Exploded my grips and cracked my handlebar end but otherwise the bike and I survived with only some solid scrapes & bruises! Despite that fail, I managed second place in Women's. This event definitely had the best post-race food I've ever had with Poke Bowls!

Race #3--
I'd heard about Old Growth Classic, a gravel race near Santa Cruz but when I went to register post-move, the $200+ entry fee was more than I could afford. I ended up giving that weekend to my first moonlighting (big girl ED doctor!) shifts. Then, about two weeks before, a Stanford affiliated person decided they couldn't race and gave up their entry for cheaper. My shift wasn't until 4p and I was 99.9% sure I'd finish in plenty of time to make it back for my shift so I went for it. The race has super strict parking rules and I didn't have a parking permit, so I ended up sleeping in my car on a nearby backroad so that I could position my car near the park entrance for a rapid getaway post race for my shift.

After pre-riding part of the course a couple days before, I abandoned my gravel bike for my Tall Boy. The course was steep and loose enough that I desperately needed non-slicks and I didn't have any other tires for my gravel bike. Having some lower gears was pretty nice too. I had a pair of Maxxis Paces laying around, tossed those on to get as little rolling resistance as I could and went for it.

The race was so fun and challenging with a strong women's field. Between Old Growth and Carson City, these are the first races I've really gotten the opportunity to ride with other women basically the whole time which was awesome. So many races the few women end up split up among various groups of guys and it was super cool being able to push hard along other ladies as we played to our strengths of our selected bikes. I ended up 3rd in a close Pro Women's field, but sadly had to run away back to my shift and missed the podium. 😢

Podium really looked like fun...

Instead, I was here...

The year has been tough mentally and emotionally but I'm thankful to have finally gotten settled in the new place. I've been lucky to meet some rad people here who also enjoy long adventuring rides in the mountains and starting to find a new community. I'm still working really hard with fellowship, emergency medicine Boards coming up, and moonlighting but looking towards 2020 it looks like I'll be able to be back racing again which I'm very excited for! One race is already planned-- 24 Hours of Old Pueblo which Carla and I will be teaming up for a Duo Women's team! 24 hours racing with my Roanoke bike bestie! Yes, please!!!