SERC 2011 is complete

The last race of the SERC season is now finished! As a blogging novice, my blogging skills are still in development, so many fun race weekends and riding adventures have surfed under the radar. In an effort to be thorough, here are a few snippets about some races leading up to Fontana's finale:

6/18 Cysco Cycles 6 hour race at Booker T: Out of 4 women, I landed 2nd, waaaay behind Elizabeth McCallie. Logged about 43 miles in 5h25ish min. 32-21 gearing, high humidity. Had friends and teammates in the cheering section.

6/26 Clemson, SC SERC: Fun, hilly, rooty course with some sections of twisty, newly cut trail. More hills than I remembered. Slick roots on the trail by the water precipitated multiple screw-ups and dabs. Went back and forth with Tiffany B (who is one very consistent rider). The 32-21 worked well for the gravel road climb to the finish. Ended up 4th behind Julie Stewart and just in front of Tiffany B.

7/10 Huntsville, AL SERC: Most of the US-Stove Company team convened at Team Copaxone headquarters (aka Grace Ragland's home) and crashed with her kind roommate Steve G). Gnarly, rugged pinhoti/pisgah-esque trail + fast, flowy double track = the Monte Sano race course. Despite lots of crashes, it was a good race. Still liked the 32-21 on the superfly for 3/4 of the course, but could have used an extra gear on all the flat stuff. Worked hard to catch Tiffany B, but couldn't, and ended up 2nd between her and Heather D.

7/17 Hellacious Helen, GA SERC make up: Due to missing the FL serc, having a flat tire on my car the AM of the Tanasi serc and blowing it at the Raccoon serc, I had some crucial points to make up to even qualify for the overall standings. Enter Helen's race. In a nutshell--

Kym, Star & I,

very dingy, very expensive hotel,

tourist trap town,

super hilly race course,

hollow feeling legs,

many hike a bike sections for me due to not being able to push the gear I had up the hills,

back and forth with persistent Paige P (who ultimately won the GSC series),

steep grade at the finish = humbling hilarity of pushing my bike across finish line,

eeked out 3rd place by a hair in front of Paige P,

goats on the roof roadside store visit after the race.

Whew.