Memphis. Hot.

So instead of my mountain bike season being over after the SERC finals, I have the little matter of the World Cup Finals with the US National team to get ready for. That means a few more weeks of racing. We have had a horribly hot summer and I am looking forward to cyclocross but I am also super excited for Windham so I am prepared to suffer through a few more hot weekends on the mountain bike. This past weekend we had a choice of going to GA for their series finals or going to Memphis and doing a TN series race. I am winning the TN series (sort of a bonus from doing well at the TN SERC races, I wasn't planning on doing the TBRA series) so we decided to head to Memphis. One more weekend and I will no longer be able to be caught.

Memphis is an island. A hot island. One that you can't get to from Chattanooga. It is a 5-6 hour drive (closer to 6 when there are traffic jams). We got up really early Saturday and loaded up. There was a time trial Saturday so we figured as long as we were making the trip we'd do the whole weekend. We arrived in Memphis to 100 degrees and humid. The heat index was 114. Yep that's hot. The pre-ride was fun, it is a great trail and the promoter was out there marking the course and helping us find our way around. Everyone was really nice and helpful. We rode the 10 mile cross country loop and then went out for a lap on the time trial course (a portion of the cross country). We got a good hour and a half of trail riding before the start of the TT.

The TT was hot but bearable. The whole trail (including the TT) is a very twisty, flat trail. It is the kind of trail that screams home course advantage. I can only imagine how much faster I could have ridden the TT had I known what turns were coming up next. Even still, I turned a respectable time, beat a good portion of the boys and won the day. Okay, I lost the day too, as I was the only one but I did alright against the guys so that was my personal measure of things.

Saturday night we were lucky enough to be invited to stay with Kelsey's parents. She is already back in KY at school but Sue and Roger were so sweet to invite us to stay. We found out after we arrived that it was their anniversary. They cooked us an amazing dinner and we thoroughly enjoyed their company.

Sunday morning we awoke and it was already really hot. 83 degrees at 8am. This is not good. The race was 3 laps starting at 10:40am so it was going to be a long hot day. There were two Cat 1 women who showed up to race so although I was given my own category, I had ladies to start with. And the men started 4 minutes ahead of me so that was a goal too. On a flat fast course it was going to take me a lap or two to make up that much time but  I was up for the challenge. Lap one went well. I rode strong and although it was hot, I didn't feel bad. I started catching men at the end of the lap. Lap two things started to get ugly. It was really hot and it started to feel like my body had a dimmer switch and someone was dimming things. The cool water at the mid-lap aid station woke me up for about 10 minutes but I then started to fade again. By the time I caught Mark at the end of the lap I was in bad shape. We had some communication issues over me passing him (I was trying to tell him to slow down and not worry about me, he was trying speed up and get out of the way) and he ended up crashing. Sorry babe. I stopped in the feed zone to grab my frozen bottle and shoved a handful of ice down my sports bra (I got cheers for that!!!) and headed out to lap three. It was a death march. I was hot, had stopped sweating, and felt like throwing up. Then the chills came. Uh oh. I was pretty sure i was rapidly approaching heat exhaustion and the only option was to slow down and keep pedaling while trying to not get any hotter. I stopped at the mid race aid station and filled my bottle with cold water, dumped some more on my head and continued on my way. I was actually getting worried the last 20 minutes that I wasn't going to make it. Somehow I did. They grabbed me at the finish and soaked me under a hose. I drank 6 bottles of water and after about an hour I started to feel like me again. It was officially 101 degrees in Memphis with a heat index of 118. I have found my limit.

I won the race. I beat some of the guys. I found my limits in the heat.

I would like to say a huge thank you to Stanky Creek Cycling and Larry in Memphis. You guys put on a class act event. Everything from the course to the food to the support to the prizes were awesome. Thanks!!! I will spread the word and hopefully be back next year with some teammates. But only if it isn't quite so hot...

Next up is Booker T here is Chattanooga, then on to Windham!!!!