I’ve been looking forward to Little Sugar all year, because within the scope of the Grand Prix, it’s the only singletrack mountain bike race. While I love the challenge of the gravel events, being the fact that I have a mountain bike background, the singletrack is where I feel most at home.  

I think I spend a lot more time training on singletrack than most of my cohort, not because I think it’s any magic formula, but simply because I love it, and I could never tear myself away.

So, as I lined up for Little Sugar, the word of the day was “joy.” And I’m guessing anyone paying attention to me on the start line could see it. I lined up with a huge smile on my face, dancing a little bit to the music playing over the loud speaker and rejoicing because I knew no matter what went down on the day, I got to ride some awesome trails.

Luckily, I also think a smile is my secret weapon so as we made the turn onto the grass, signaling the start of the race to the singletrack, I was ready to go. With each pedal stroke I felt my bike accelerating forward, I thought of all of the workouts my coach has expertly crafted for these types of moments and I dug down inside of myself. I felt the doubts rise, but as Enso Mental Performance has illustrated, they were just passengers on the bus, they weren’t the ones driving. I followed my intuition and I entered the singletrack in 4^th position, right on the wheels of 1^st-3^rd.

I’ll be honest, when I entered that singletrack, I felt a huge wave of relief wash over me. I’ve fought so hard to work on my start, and entering that singletrack in good position, made the whole day feel like a victory. Even 20 years into racing, seeing personal improvement is truly more satisfying than anything external.

I quickly tabled my excitement and tucked it away to celebrate later and focused on the task at hand. Alexis and Sofia put a small gap on the field and the rest of us jostled in position. I moved into 3^rd position, then settled back into 5^th for a few miles. We rode in a group of 3 for several miles as I took notice of where I was feeling strongest and where I needed to find more speed. Around mile 10, I went to the front and set my own pace forward. I didn’t necessarily mean to drop the other riders in my group, but I had decided that from that point forward I would set my own pace.

From mile 10-30 I chipped away at time and when we came through the one and only feed station on course at mile 30 I was in 3^rd place, only 10 seconds behind Alexis who was in 2^nd.

Mile 30-40 were tough. The terrain all felt the same, the heat was start to rise, and I was suddenly very aware that we were barely over halfway. I focus had to continue to narrow as I focused on each individual corner and desperately counted down to my favorite part of the course: The Ledges at Mile 40.

The Ledges is the most technical part of the course and I felt like that change of pace was exactly what I needed to re-stoke the fire. And I was right, from mile 40-50 I was back on the gas, I was finding my groove and pushing toward the finish. Alexis had opened her gap on me during my painful 10 miles, but I was still in a confident 3^rd and fighting forward.

When I hit mile 50 though, the legs started to fight back. The miles couldn’t tick down fast enough. I was cramping with each acceleration, I was making mistakes on the descents and even took 2 wrong turns and had to back track. I was bleeding time and I knew it. Eventually I stopped hunting forward and started looking over my shoulder. I knew someone had to be coming, but I hoped the miles would run out first.

Somewhere between 6-8 miles to the finish, Melisa caught me and my legs just cramped in response. I slid from 3^rd to 4^th one painful pass, but as painful as it was, it was also a bit inspiring. I had nothing else. I had emptied the tank. I came apart a few miles short, but I reached my main goal; to leave it all out on course.

I crossed the finish line in 4^th, knowing I gave it my all on the day, excited, relieved, and ready to celebrate my progress.

Now just a few days to rest, and we have one more race this season: 100 miles at Big Sugar.