For cross weekend #2 (for me), the race was down in Tucson. While my husband Aaron was doing an epic dirt bike ride with the guys, I spent the Sunday with the girls.

As you might already guess, I made a batch of muffins the night before. This time, per Bob Mortensen's request, I made my popular Pina Colada muffins. Here's the recipe for this one!

Early Sunday morning, I drove the back-way to Tucson, stopping in Florence to pick up my friend Shelby Hanson. I had twisted her arm into trying out a cross race and giving me some company for the drive. Shelby is a true cowgirl cyclist as she lives way out in the boonies on a horse farm. Her family has several horses, she trains them and also works for her dad, Jason, who is also pretty bad ass on the bike and is a well known farrier. If you ever get to meet the Hanson family - they are pretty cool and will instantly become extended family!

Shelby and I drove for another hour before we got to Tucson. I had signed up for two races, the cat 3/4 men and the women's 1/2. I figured the men's race would be a good warm-up and give me a chance to feel out the course.

The men's race started out with about 30 riders. I enjoyed the starting chaos of bumping elbows and fighting for the first few turns and then the field spread out and I eased into a good tempo. I pushed hard but not full out as I wanted to save my best matches for the women's race. The course had a few dirt mounds to ride over. I was amused as a few guys in front of me dismounted to run over them. I guess they didn't realize staying on the bike was much faster! On the back part of the course was a section of barriers. This was the first time EVER I have experienced 4 barriers in a row!! Yes, 4 barriers lined up in a row. My dismounting skills were still pretty good after missing last season's cross, however by the time I hopped over the 4th barrier and remounted, I could feel a good knot in my stomach - the kind that makes you want to hurl! "Wow, that hurt!" I finished the men's race near the back.

The next race was the women's 3/4 with a mixture of juniors. I was impressed by the junior development teams that attended and the number of girls on those teams! This is the future for women's cycling! Debby Hunter again crushed the race and broke away from everyone. Tricia was also tearing it up - and Shelby was impressively hanging in there and doing some awesome dismounting for her first race!

The 1/2 women's race was a field of 3. "So basically by showing up we win!" I told the race official. He gave us the option to wait another 45 minutes and race with the 1/2 men but we wanted to just get it over with. We knew how the finish would turn out but we were in for there to do some racing! The race started with Chloe and I taking off together. She didn't go for the hole shot since there wasn't one, rather the pace gradually increased. I pondered the idea of going around her but just stayed patient because I knew she would 'get real' with me! The first lap was her first time around the course so I knew she was just scoping it out. We stayed neck and neck. Then, near the end of the second lap, about 13 minutes into the race, she made a tiny acceleration on a long straight. It was hard to stay on her wheel as I was riding my mountain bike and that part of the course was much faster on a cross bike. I was also beginning to realize how hard we had been pushing it as we had already set some pretty amazing lap times compared to the men's 3/4 race I had done earlier! I was a least a minute per lap faster!

As Chloe gained her lead, I kept pushing as not to let her get as far ahead as the previous week. She was in sight, about 30 seconds up and each lap she gained about 10 seconds. As I pushed on, people cheered and complimented my tall socks, "Nice socks!" "Your socks match your jersey!" and I would respond, "Guys, it's all about the socks!"

For the final lap, I could tell Chloe put the pedal to the metal as I started losing sight of her. On the top part of the course, I had put my head down for just a second and looked up to realize I was running into the tape! I laughed, shook my head to regain focus and pushed on. I ended up finishing at least a minute down from her. We all got on the podium for some awesome prizes and cash!

It was a great weekend and Shelby and I finished by stopping for some Starbucks and Mexican before I dropped her off.