Booker T

Okay , I am slowly playing the "catch up" game with my reports. Today brings me to Booker T mountain bike race in Chattanooga on August 23rd. Booker T State Park is about 15 minutes from my house and I NEVER ride there. Not that it isn't a fun trail, it is, it's just short. If I am going to load up and drive somewhere to ride I typically want to ride a trail that is longer that 5.5 miles. At race pace it is about a 30 minute lap. That is a lot of riding in circles...


Catherine, Star, Shannon and I headed to Booker T on Sunday morning to unseasonably cool temperatures and perfect course conditions. My personal goal was to see if I could turn a time that would outright win the 40+ Expert Men's fields. That is Mark's field and I can usually get most of those guys but there are a few that I just can't quite catch. I knew the trail and I was feeling good. If there was any day it was going to happen, this was going to be it. This was also Catherine's last race as a Sport rider and Star's first as an Expert. My girls are all growing up!!!

Local races are always fun. There is a small amount of added pressure to do well but it is ALWAYS fun to race in front of the hometown crowd. We had "peeps" in almost every category and Chattanooga was poised to do really well.


Our race started pretty tame, it was a pavement start and no one was fired up to go too fast. I stepped up the pace and took the hole shot. I was the only pro woman, all the other girls were experts, so my goal was to see where I could finish in the men's field. The men all started in front of me so it was pretty much 2 hours of "go catch the boys". FUN!!! Secretly that is one of my favorite games. My other goal was to finish in under 2 hours. If I could do that i would take a SIGNIFICANT amount of time off of last year's time. The course was faster this year but that was still a lofty goal. I raced hard and paced myself well. I ended up coming in at 1:58!!! I did it. I took 12 MINUTES off my time. WOW. Most fields were about 2 minutes faster than last year. I know that I have gotten faster this year but that was a really great feeling. In the end, I was only beat by 5 expert men.

Star took 4th and Shannon was 5th in the pro/expert field. Great ride ladies. Catherine won, of course. Her career as a Sport rider is officially OVER. Welcome to the big girl races....

The best part about Booker T was that it was the final race in the TBRA (TN Bike Racing Association) series. We did a few other races in TN that were part of the series and although we were not chasing the series, Catherine, Helen and I all ended up on the podium. We each took second in our respective categories. What a great season this has been!!!!