We took off from the start, somewhere around 14 of us singlespeeders, WAY too fast. I'm running a White Industries Dos Eno cog, and I had put it on the 19t cog just before this, anticipating the big climb. Turns out no one else geared down, and I was spinning hard and breathing hard practically right away. I came into the first singletrack section last, and tried to calm down over the first few rolling miles. When we popped out onto the fire road I was desperate already, thinking about getting last and sucking in my own race, so I slowed down. It was maybe the best thing I could have done, because after about a mile of the climb I started feeling a little more human. And, I could see the red jersey of the guy in front of me. Within another mile I had caught him and could see another guy ahead...I started feeling pretty good and picking people off, and by the top of the 2000 foot climb I was sitting in 10th. Now the fun started: 2000 feet of descending, all sweet singletrack. I caught some expert guys in the Hobbit Forest, then I pretty much had Little Bear all to myself: I saw no one but a singlespeeder on the side of the trail with a flat. My husband was course marshaling at the bottom of Little Bear, so I blew him a kiss and got a second wind ;) Barely saw anyone on the climb up to Schultz, then 4 more miles of gorgeous twisty trail to the bottom. Started hurting a little on the final push up Rocky Ridge, but held it together 'til the finish. So...9th on the day (behind a few really fast locals), which was good enough for 3rd in the state series. Yup, I'm the third fastest man in Arizona! And the prettiest one, I might say.
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