UNR Collegiate Race Report

Better late than never...

Crit, Saturday April 9

It was windy, it was cold, and there was elevation. I've been having issues with a pinched sciatic nerve, too. The women's B and C were combined, though scored separately. We lined up and off we went.

The race was going great. The more I ride with these girls, the better it gets. I was enjoying this pancake-flat course. The backside was windy as hell, but it was flat and flat is my forte.

Halfway through, that damned nerve shot pain up my spine and down my left leg which make it completely numb. There went my sprints, my primes, any chance of getting top 5. I was pissed and tried to hang on, then I realized so what? It's a flat course, but I can't have every race. It just won't happen. I finished with the group, but I couldn't do the sprint. Sucky. I love sprinting, but it happens.

We stayed to see the women's and men's A races, in which the CSUS riders did well in. We went out to eat and went to bed, ready to race the road race in 35-degree weather.

Wait... WHAT???

Road Race, Sunday April 10

It was flippin' cold. It was 35 degrees around 8:30am. The higher divisions (A/B) went out first since they had longer races. I knew that there was going to be a lot of climbing, so I knew that this wasn't going to be my race and I was freaked out about my leg going numb. The women's B/C started together again. As we were going, a UCD girl almost pushed me over the yellow line (pretty sure she just didn't see me). The yellow line rule was strictly enforced and the Sheriff was following us (had one for every group). Team Rev's coaches (John, Reese, Tank, etc) had been teaching us bumping and being comfortable in close quarters, so I simply tapped on the girl's leg to tell her I'm there. It avoided me getting pushed over and a crash, which was great!

We had all made a unanimous decision at the beginning of the race to start and "warm up" slowly. We followed through. No one tried to take advantage of that for a breakaway. A couple of girls dropped their chains, so we waited for them (Yea, guys! Chicks aren't as catty as you think!).

Rollers. It was going well. I'm glad I "under dressed." Then a climb. The Bs took off. I dropped back. Downhill. Caught a UCD girl who said, "You're an awesome descender. It's my best skill and you're right on me." Nice compliment.

We kept riding down the hill and two other UCD girls joined us. So, 3 UCD and 1 CSUS. One of them said, "Let's all work together. Sac State, you're a B, right?"

"No, a C, but I'm up for working together." So we did.

We saw snow on the shoulder, which cued my "WTF NO!!" As we rode down to the turn around, I was having a blast because hey, downhill. Then, it hit me: I'm going 45+ mph, it's an out-and-back course... I'm going to have to climb back up this.

We turned around and stayed together for a while. When we got to the main climb, one girl went by faster, the other got away, I followed, and their best sprinter got dropped. I eventually caught the 2nd girl and we stuck together to the very end.

As we saw the finish, UCD wanted me to get in front but I stated patient. I had to keep telling myself to not jump too early. She slowed down to get me in front, I stayed back. She knew I was onto her plan, so she sped up. I drafted. Then, the sprint (uphill finish, to add insult to injury). I had it. I sprinted after her and got ahead. Finished 6th. It's not the best finish, but I was happy at a) I learned my lesson and finally didn't pull the other rider to the sprint; b) my leg didn't go numb; c) I can sprint (the crit had me worried. Yea, I know.. a numb leg doesn't help).

It was a fun and cold race. My last collegiate race for this season. It was a decent first collegiate season for me.

My Sea Otter report will come soon.

Nevada Derby

Because we couldn't make it to Rides of March, I decided that I was going to sign up for the Nevada Derby on April 2. This ride was 5 miles shorter (I signed up for the 25-miler), but whatever. I wanted to do my first ride of the season, already!

At first, a bunch of us were going. Shit happens though, and it was just Kathy and me. We were getting ready on Thursday because we wanted to leave early on Friday... JUST IN CASE. A lot happened that day, though. I found out I have a pinched nerve while I was riding Folsom Lake Loop with the Sac State cycling team, the barn was chaos, the manure truck got stuck at the orchard, Kathy's filly got kicked by the percheron mare on the hock (all the way to the bone), and Randy's car decided it wanted to commit suicide (he and I were pushing his car back into his garage at 2AM... AFTER it got towed there, of course). I went to bed at 3AM that night knowing I had to haul two horses a little past Reno. Awesome...

Whatever, right? We got to the barn, things were running smoothly. I bathed Mac. He hated that and started shivering. Loaded up the truck and trailer. Loaded the horses. Off we went. Paid for gas. Died a little inside again. And to the race!

The weather was beautiful. No snow on the road, only the sides. Then, my trailer's brakes fail. I have NO brakes on my trailer going down the pass. I try to fix it, get it done, and after bumping on the amazingly smooth roads of I-80 (hurr no), they fail again. Connection gone wrong. The good thing is that I don't panic and this has happened before on much worse roads (to hell with you, Diamond Springs!). I used my engine for brakes, so my truck's brakes didn't even stink. Yeah, I know I'm good (it's okay... you can admit it, too).

I pulled off when it was safe and fixed my connection (again). This time, I used vet wrap to keep the damn thing in place. Oh, vet wrap, what would we do without you? And it worked just fine!

We got to the ranch, unloaded the horses, signed in, set camp up, and vetted both horses. They were just fine, so we hung around until the meeting. Saw some people at the meeting whom I haven't seen in a long time! (4-H peeps).

We ate dinner and then started getting ready for bed. We had a long day ahead of us!

Throughout the night, the horses kept playing with their buckets, hay bags, and the trailer. Mac would smack his bucket against the trailer and then decided to dump his water. My happy ass had to get out of bed to fill up buckets. Then, they hay bag started. Mac and Lucky were so bored that they decided that playing with Lucky's hay bag would be fun. After a while of quietness, Mac started to chew on the trailer, then look through one of the windows. Sigh...

We woke up and got everything ready. We saw the 50's go out. We warmed up and headed to the starting line. Since there weren't an enormous amount of riders, we decided to start right at 8am.

We kept on going and Mac was getting more and more excited. Someone lost his privilege of a snaffle! Right after the creek crossing, Mac was about to explosively drop his brain, but Kathy had crossed the creek by then as well, so we were able to contain Mac's brain in his skull for a few more minutes.

We kept on riding and the hills started. Sweet. We actually had to canter/hand gallop up some of them due to how steep they were, which was great for me because that took the edge off Mac. All of that extra nervous energy he had was drained out a little.

Riding with us was another gentleman on his gray. He had an extremely well behaved horse. When Kathy said, "Your horse is so good! We keep cantering up the hills behind him and he doesn't even care."

"Not bad for a stallion, huh?" The guy said. Whoa! Really? That was pretty impressive. We didn't even know that the horse still had its balls.. it was THAT well behaved. Naturally, Kathy inquired about him and his breeding. She wants him to be her filly's baby-daddy. If I had a (good) mare, I would totally breed her to that horse... and I'm not that into breeding! That says something.

We kept on going. We had quite a bit of flat road ahead of us, so we all trotted in a group. Mac got something up his ass and he decided that we were going to trot BIG. We had a Tennessee Walker, the stallion, Lucky, a black arab, and Mac in the group. Eventually, I told Kathy that I can't fight Mac anymore and that I'll wait once he gets tired out a bit. That wasn't until mile 16. Awesome. But Mac eventually walked.

We had a 10 minute hay and water hold. We had to be honest about our times and whatnot (and we were). We all hung out and talked and had a blast. One lady even popped a pee in front of everyone (she asked if we were okay with it first). Mac started to shiver because he's a pansy. And, we took this:

Where is this Team Revs bottle?!

(Don't say on top of a horse's head... I've heard that joke way too many times now. Good gods..)

As I said, Mac eventually walked, and Mac and Lucky were able to get the same in and out times after the vet check. They both passed, thought he vet told me that there MIGHT be a slight soreness on Mac's left front. Weird.. that's Mac's GOOD leg. She said that it's not wroth noting, and he passed everything else with flying colors. Of course, Mac had TRIPPED on the trot out, so that could have been it. I, of course, was all paranoid but Kathy told me that he was trotting just fine. He was, but you know... that damn horse needs to stop sabotaging our vet checks!

Mac and lucky were fantastic. Kathy, the horses, and I ate lunch and then we set out for our last 5 miles. We trotted for about half of it then decided that we were going to take it easy and we waled. We saw some donkeys, which Mac did a "OH HELL NO!" about it. C'mon, horse! you've been ridden for 22 miles and you STILL have the energy to be crazy? Then, we saw 4 Clydes pulling a cart, and of course, Mac did the, "Oh holy shit! There's a cage that ate a few humans and now it's chasing those 4 horses and they don't even KNOW. It's going to get them then us then we're all going to die!!!" We, naturally, survived. It didn't help that they were to our left then there were cows on the right, and Mac also did the, "That's FUGLY horse!! WHY THE FUCK IS IT SO UGLY???? And why does it go MOO?" He survived and got over it within seconds. Gotta love that horse.

We came in, took the horses to get water, untacked, let them eat, and then vetted them. Kathy was ahead of me, and Lucky vetted like a champ. So did Mac, and he didn't trip this time. Lucky finished a minute ahead of Mac. We took them back to the trailer and then walked back to see the results. Apparently, Lucky and Mac came in 6th and 7th and were in the running for horse of excellence. Sweet! We went back to see if we got it, but the gentleman with the stallion go it. Ah well! We top 10'ed!! Without even trying!

The horses looked pretty tired. We packed up and then went home. Unloaded the trailer and I went to Randy's and passed out on the couch after a shower. He woke me up because he made me a yummy dinner, and then it was bed time.

What a great race! It was so much fun. Mac and Lucky are a fantastic team and Kathy is great to ride with because she calms down MY craziness. I'm looking forward to our next endurance ride!