LoToJa was not a good race for me. It started off on the wrong foot at registration. I signed up as a cat 4 women...which I am, but then included my team name--Mad Dog Cycles. Last year that was enough to ensure that I would race with my team mates who consisted of three cat 5 men and another cat 4 women. Not this year though. Chris, Keith, and Eric were scheduled to leave with the 5800's six minutes prior the 700's which Lex and I were. After lengthy discussions the guys decided to leave with us and take the six minute penalty.

This decision was made in the "Lost in Space" room of the Anniversary Inn.

After some last minute tweeks, we rolled down to the start. We set a killer pace right off the bat and split the group. The women who stayed with us got a free ride to Preston while catching the two groups in front of them. We blew through this stop and started heading towards Strawberry. No rain this year, but I did not feel good. I started questioning my recovery or lack there of.

I felt good enough to keep up until we left Alpine. Between Afton and Alpine, Eric, Lex, and I latched onto this group. They were cruising pretty fast and were pretty organized. Then around Thayne or Etna the group splintered. This guy about mid-pack followed a truck in traffic and ended up practically grinding to a halt. It was really odd. We tried to catch the front part of the group, but could not do it. Lex was actually in the front half and Eric and I were in the back. She ended up falling back after another 10 minutes or so. There was alot of yo-yoing in the group too which was hard.

The other difficult part of this was the rumble strips. When we came up on riders, the pack would venture out into the road crossing the deep rumble strips. Often times this was without warning so I was not able to time it right. The rumble strips would stop for short periods of times by drive ways and stuff. Then they would not be pointed out when they came back. Needless to say, this section rocked my wrist. By the time I got to Alpine, my wrist was painful and achey.

From Alpine to Jackson, I had nothing left. We caught onto a good group, but I could not hold on. I dropped off the back. Chris came back for me. I was feeling sorry for myself...mentally and physically fatigued and in pain. I told him to leave me. He, of course, wouldn't. He kept trying to get me to hold his wheel and I couldn't do it. He was frustarted and so was I. This was by far the worst of it. We rode by ourselves until the neutral zone, where we latched on to Fraklin Covey group. They were riding easy and steady. We mooched off them until the final turn to Teton Village. Then I jumped and Chris followed. Two other guys attacked with us. I still did not have the strength to pull and it was a bit early. We were able to hold them off. We finished in just over 11 hours.