No, this post isn’t about Vino and all the excuses he should be making for being an asshole…but let me just say I’m not too surprised.

Anyways, this post is about all the excuses I have for DNFing the most important race of my season. Heck yea, baby…this one feels oh so bad. Let me just inform my dear readers that I have DNFed less than five races in my entire career. The first was 24 Hours of Old Pueblo three years ago, and I was pretty much hypothermic. The second was the Sea Otter stage race last year because I tore my MCL. The third was the Tumacacori RR in AZ this spring because I was digging myself into a training hole. The fourth was the Tour del Paso because my rear wheel was broken and the wheel car was gone. The fifth was the U23 Pro Womens race at MTB Nationals last weekend…and it will take a long time to forgive myself for this one…especially cause next year I’m gonna be an old lady.

So for a little context, MTB Nationals was pretty much a shit race. It rained for three days prior to the event, and the course had become the texture of peanut butter. Oh well, no big deal, I like to play in the mud. It stopped raining the day of the race, and by the 5 pm start time, the course had dried out for a day, but three other categories (including the pro women) had raced on it earlier that day. There was an entire section of the climb that was unrideable…you literally had to run for almost ten minutes.

So anyways, at the start I went as hard as I could at the gun and reached the first singletrack in second position behind Chloe. By that point, I was boggle-eyed from going so hard and messed up the first descent. I got back in the grove and had the feeling I always have ten minutes into a cross country race that I desperately needed to quit. I usually feel like death for the first lap and then find my mojo. So I trucked along and caught two girls that had passed me. I was cruising down the last descent of the first lap, the yardsale section with the huge crowd, when I did the best endo of my career, came out of my pedals, and landed with my knees splayed out to both sides and my ass flat on the ground. There were cheers, and ohhhs, and ahhhs, and I pulled my muddy checks out of the hole my wheel had stopped in and got back on my bike. That’s when I realized I had twisted my left knee…the one I tore my MCL on the year before…the one that healed with a ligament longer than it should be…the one that needs reconstructive surgery…and it was screaming. I rode through the feed zone and told Chris and David (mechanic and manager) I had twisted my knee. They told me to ride the parade lap and see how I felt. So, I headed up the first climb and knew it was over…I had totally lost my mojo. I came down the first descent walking my bike and crying and pulled out of the race. All I have to say about that is !!#!@#$%%@@$%! My teammate Heather made me feel a little better though, because she said, “It’s ok, I still love you, hot fudge sundae.” In case you were wondering, hot fudge sundae is my pot-tart personality…so you can refer to me as such from here on out.

As it turns out, I did not reinjure my already injured knee. It is bruised and stiff, but nothing tore further. I am bummed about the situation, but in the end, feel I made the right decision…which is usually the hardest one to make.

So anyways, I think I figured out why I had such a bad race in Vermont. As many of you may know, you have to sacrifice important items to the race gods who live in porta-potties in order to have good races. See my blog entry titled “Sacrifice” for further information. So in any case, there were no porta-potties in Vermont. What kind of mountain bike race doesn’t have porta-potties? Indoor plumbing is for sissies. So for those of you who want an excuse for my bad race experience…blame the indoor plumbing.

PS - Congrats to Chloe and Sam for winning the U23 stars and bars! Yeah baby!