Scott and I headed to the Iceman Cometh in Traverse City, MI this past weekend. After working 1/2 a day on Friday we made it to Mackinaw City where we stayed overnight then drove the rest of the way Saturday morning. We got there in time to pick up our packets, hang out a bit, then get ready for the race.

It was mid-40s and sunny during the warm up and I got too hot, so I took off some of my clothing I was planning on racing in. I didn't feel very good during the warm-up; mostly lethargic. I could tell Scott didn't want to tell me I was going slow. My bike worked fine and Scott dialed in the shifting. I was all set to go.

This year they didn't do call-ups for women, but luckily I still got on the front row. Once the guy said "go" I missed my pedal or something and ended up behind another rider anyways. We had just gotten up to top speed when one rider cut off anther rider right in front of me, she jacknifed her front wheel and endo'd right in front of me. It happened so fast that I was on top of her flying, crashing hard, and then getting run over by another handful of women. Our bikes were tangled. I finally got up and got my seat out of another gals spokes and then got on my bike. The bars were so far twisted they were almost pointing back wards! Luckily, DJ from Clif Bar was right there and helped me turn them back. I don't think I could have done that one my own. So there I was the last woman to get back on her bike, with 27.5 miles to go and the lead group long long gone! I started picking off riders and it seemed each one took alot to catch. A few riders latched on and after about 4 miles I finally bridged up to Kyia and Heather I. I rode behind them for long enough to rest just a bit, looked back and realized a few women hung onto me. I passed Kyia and mentioned how we needed to 'drop the rest of the group'. We were together for another few miles and then I don't know what happened, all the sudden I was alone and chasing down some men in front of me. When I crashed my right shifter was bent, along with my deraileur, so I only had a few gears in each chain ring to work with. My gears would skip going uphill so I had to go up in a much harder gear than I wanted to. I finally caught up and passed fourth place and was sitting in third for most of the race. #63 and I would change places pulling, the gal behind me even pulled once. I was using way too much energy getting up hills and would lose my momentum due to my bike deciding to shift on its own. It wasn't until much later in the race (about 3 miles to go) that I realized I could go up the hills in my small chain ring (Duh) that too slowly realized solution may have cost me one or two places. With about 12 miles to go or so I started getting cold! The sun tucked itself behind the clouds. I was working hard to try and stay warm. I could see the second place woman about 30 seconds up and was trying to catch her with about 7 miles or so do go. I tried to bridge the gap and was making some progress when we hit more hills with about 5 miles to go, and realized my legs were shot. I was trying to hang in there, but the guys I was with only wanted a free ride, #63 had dropped me when I couldn't shift well enough to get up a hill and the rest of the group with him, including the woman that drafted off our group the majority of the race after I caught her. Then I dropped my water bottle and limped in as best I could. I really gave a good effort and am pleased with how hard I worked to get the place I did. It could have been much worse, or worse yet, I could have gotten seriously injured during that crash. I crossed the line in fourth, with dried blood 1/2 down my shin from a gash in my knee, my right hip bruised. It wasn't until later that evening, after the adrenaline wore off, that I started to stiffen up and assess more of the damage. We drove to Munising the night after the race, slept there (terribly as I couldn't get comfortable) and realized my right deltoid is bruised (can barely lift my right shoulder overhead), I couldn't take a deep breath cuz the left side of my back and chest hurt, and had additional minor bruising. That was by far the worst crash I have ever been in and hope to never be in that kind of heap again! The season is over for me and not exactly the way I wanted to finish it, but again I am pleased with my effort and that I didn't give up.

We were both really thankful for the Lalonde's being willing to transport some of our clothing to the finish line, for DJ getting me settled down and twisting my bars back at the start after I crashed, and for DJ and Wendy also for giving us a ride back to the start of the race where our car was parked. They also gave us my marathon overall and wors overall prizes, which they were nice enough to pick up for me at the wors awards ceremony a month back.