Hot, Hot, Hot

So yes, I have been slacking. Not in general, just in my posting on the blog. Life has been a whirlwind since Texas. We had BUMP and then barely enough time to recover before more racing, camp and more travel and racing. Whew. I have almost forgotten what my house looks like.

With that being said, I'll pick up with the reports where I left off. Dauset:

Jackson, GA and the Dauset trails are always a lot of fun and always seem to be HOT. Amanda, Emily and I decided to head to GA to see if we could battle the heat before Emily and I went to the USA Cycling Development camp; me as the lead coach, Emily as a camper. Mark and I run the camp every year and although it is one of my favorite weeks of the year, it is exhausting and takes me a few weeks to recover. I have not yet learned that going directly to camp from a race does not help my exhaustion level. The heat also does not help the situation. But I digress....

We arrived in GA and it was HOT. I realize that I keep mentioning the heat but it was miserable. 95 degrees and really humid. I don't ever complain about the heat, but if I did, I would have complained this weekend. Our pre-ride was awful. Afterwards I tried to cool off by swimming in the pond/beach at the park. It was as hot as bathwater and did nothing to cool me down. UGH.

Dauset was also the individual time trial for the series. I determined that I did not need the points toward the series overall so I decided to opt out and cheer for my teammates instead. They rocked it. Catherine won and Amanda was third. We were off to another great weekend.

Kym and Amanda on the podium

photo courtesy of Trish Albert/Southeasterncycling.com

Sunday morning was hot when we woke up and just kept getting hotter. The race director decided for safety reasons to shorten the laps. He took out a technical slow 2 mile section of the lap, making it an 8 mile loop instead of a 10 mile loop. Any other day I might have been bummed but today we were happy. I didn't hear anyone complain about the short race. I decided that I wanted it to be over quickly and I went for it. I took the hole shot and drilled it. I never looked back. Amanda rode hard to second place and Catherine was a strong 4th. WoooHooo!!!!! The heat got Emily but she still pushed hard and finished 8th. Sometimes the hard days tell more about you than the good days. Great job Emily!! She never quit.

After the awards, We hit the road FAST to get home, do laundry, re-pack, and head to camp. We were exhausted by the time we arrived. Camp was going to be a long week.

More soon, thanks for reading...