What a day!
Having never been to Stewart, I got lost, and stopped at the state police HQ for directions. They said my google directions made no sense and sent me searching for New street north of 84... fruitless. I found my way back to 84 and got stopped behind 2 trucks with MTB's in the back, a lucky break for sure! Following them, I got into the lot 2 minutes before my scheduled start, got my gear, changed my shoes, flew to registration and got my number about 7 minutes after start time. They sent me off to start/finish anyway.
Incredibly, everyone was so cool. I was a tad harried and over-stressed until I saw NJ JESS' smile and reassuring words at the starting line. Kudos to Dark Horse for breaking the groups up by 2 min. It made the difference between me racing and going home mad after wasting two and a half hours driving and @ $50 on gas. Additionally, it was a pleasure to race in a smaller field without having to climb needlessly over the kids and mobs of other riders.
Wanting to get a real feel for the land, I crashed spectacularly within the first two miles, saw stars when I landed hard on the top tube, messed up my shoulder and added color to last week's fading bruises. I got back on, rode the rest of the course sitting off the back of the seat(cause it hurt too bad, and still does😱), finished the race and to my surprise, took third behind a couple of awesome racers.
There's something about those medals... suddenly, my body slam didn't feel so bad... and how cool was that ribbon to bring home to the kids!!
Thanks for the fun!
