The last few months I have been having adventure after adventure on my mountain bike. The challenges I've faced from climbing mountains and learning how to descend over rocks (without grasping my brakes) have fulfilled that place in my heart where the cyclocross was missing.

In the middle of November, I did a short 24 mile mtn bike race in Cave Creek, and much to my luck, I broke away and took the victory! To me, it was lucky to be the new person in the crowd - that no one was looking out for, so I was able to sneak away much easier!

This past weekend, was an even more memorable race. It was a local favorite called Dawn till Dusk. I was racing with my new team, FASTER as a quad. This twelve hour race was a relay with each leg being 16 miles and approximately 1 hr. We went into the race with ambitions of winning - and due to some technical difficulties, we didn't win without a good fight!

I started the first lap. This lap was extended 3 miles down the road as to give people room to spread out before hitting the trails. I staged myself at the front with the guys and just latched onto their wheels. The first lap I stayed with the top 20 guys overall until about half way through the lap when we were pace lining up the trail, a guy in front of me endoed (head over the handlebars), and I went flying right into him and landing right on my head. The impact knocked the wind out of myself. I laid there moaning (cuz it hurt) and mentally checked to make sure nothing was broken. Arms - check. Neck - check check. Ribs - check. Then I slowly got up. The guys stopped to help me and I slowly got back on my bike (it was fine!) and as I slowly pedaled in a mental fog. All too soon I heard a high pitched voice of a female rider, "On your left," and all of a sudden I snapped out of it and got angry and chased her down and took back the lead.

We stayed in the lead for 3 laps until my teammate Liz flatted and cost us 10 minutes. I was in line after her and rode my fastest lap - making up a few minutes. Following me was Anna Sanders. She took over to make up more time, and same with Tricia, but when it came back to Liz, we knew that when she finished, I would have to do the lap in less than an hour to make the time cut for one final lap.

I slammed two cokes, ate a couple of oranges, bars, and got charged up on honey. I was very tired and sore. My head pounded from the crash earlier in the day, but I had to get amped up. I weaseled Anna's boyfriend into doing the lap to help pace me. So when Liz came, I had to do a sub 59 min. This would be just about as fast as my lap before.

We were 8 min down. I went into a pain cave, my legs were trying to cramp and seize up on me, and Bill (who was helping pacing me) would yell, "Come on, stand up over the hill!!" He kept me motivated because my body was fried! Then, as we reached the halfway point, and I saw the time we were making, I realized that I might just make it and start to fly. My hands were off the brakes. But with a mile to go, my legs were trying to seize up. "Relax, relax!" I'd tell myself. As I came flying into where the tents were, I heard the announcer counting down. I went through the slick corners, one, two, and screamed at a rider that I was coming on her left. I came in very hot to the dismount zone and swung my right leg around. My left foot was stuck in my pedal and I went flying into the fence! I stumble up, grabbed my bike and started running. The announcer looked at me and was pointing at his watch, counting down the seconds. I made it with 30 sec to spare! My teammates screamed and grabbed me in a big hug. I wasn't sure what had just happened. But I soon realized that I made it, and Anna took off to chase down a 2 minute gap. She was able to catch the other team and we won by 30 sec! It was awesome!

And to top it all off...Liz won the push-up contest!!

Go team FASTER!!