Scott and I both raced the MN Series Dirtspanker race at Mont du Lac this weekend near Duluth. (We skipped Afton because I was sick). It rained the entire week leading up to the race. While the course, we are told, was quite good the day before the race, neither Scott nor I prerode as we didn't want to get our bikes dirty. (And Scott clean them again!) Scott did a great job of getting our bikes all set, including cleaning them (spit shine) and selecting mud tires. I was lucky that we had a set sitting around and Scott got lucky that The Ski Hut could get a 29er set in quickly. It worked out really well to still have our last year's bikes to race so we would not have to get our new ones all dirty (they just got here today! :)

The climb out of the start at Mont du Lac is always tough! Straight up the hill. Luckily this year the climb wasn't quite as tough as there is a new road up the left side of the uphill. I was thankful for the gravel. Once on top the trail dips into singletrack. As soon as I got down the hill I was basically off my bike running up the first climb and around expert riders. The course really slowed everyone down and created quite a bugger of things! The right tires on the bike made all the difference! I was third heading into the singletrack behind Jenna and Chloe. It was fun to race with them for part of that first lap. I am not too sure how much fun they were having though. Chloe fell in front of me and somehow I got around her without going down. I felt lucky when I caught Jenna, but I don't think her tires were clearing the mud very well. I didn't think it would be as bad as it was in the woods. It was like racing in thick pea soup with deep ruts in the middle down some of the off canter downhills. We have not seen race/mud conditions like this since the Norba National in West Virginia in 2003. I felt really lucky to have won this race. There were many fast and fit women and I think I mostly just got the right tires on my bike (thank you, Scott!) Skinny ski (www.skinnyski.com) has some really great photos of the race that captures the conditions quite well.

I was really happy to see Scott do well and place second overall! He has fantastic mud skills and he was saying after the race he probably should have run more as it would have been faster at times than riding. He was pleased with his race and finish. It is so nice to see him race well again. As hard as it was to get rid of our cats, it has been the best thing for Scott. He was really allergic to them. It is also nice to sleep through the night for the past month as Kiera has finally taken to sleeping though the night (about time!) As hard as it is to be sleep deprived all the time, I wouldn't have changed all the extra time we got to cuddle with the babe at night. We won't get that time back and someday she'll have a complete adversion to cuddling with either one of us!

Grandpa Irv was nice enough to bring her out to the race after she woke up from her morning nap. She was running around, making friends, getting all dirty, and basically enjoying being outside; especially while wearing her favorite green frog boots! Her and grandpa are good buddies.

Our next race is the Keewenaw Chain Drive. This race is a lot of fun and has really great singletrack! Scott and I also really like Houghton. It is very similar to Duluth, but smaller. It is also nice to stay at the hotel at the race start (Bridgewater Best Western). This year we will leave Kiera home instead of having her ride that far in her carseat. Last year she was not happy and was really fussy. We got to Houghton really late at night and were both completed exhausted before the race. It is still tough for me to leave her home.