Lowell 50

Wendy really wanted to race the Lowell 50 and Todd really wanted to race the Amish Country Roubaix in Ohio.  It was decided that we ladies would venture to Battle Creek, MI to stay at Wendy's parents house to race the Lowell 50 the next day while Jimmie and Todd would head south to the Mohican area to race. 

When I first looked at the weather that was supposedly going to happen for the Lowell 50, I was pretty happy since it looked like it may be fairly nice for the 50 miler.  Wendy and I were in the kitchen at her parents house looking at the weather on our phones.  Holy crap 20 to 30 mile winds and temps in the 30's and 40's.  I was not happy to read that at all.  Regardless we still ventured up to Lowell, MI Saturday morning and barely made it to the start of the race.  In fact we had to push through the group of starters because apparently we missed the start for the 50 miler.  I hung in Wendy's draft through a little bit of the first few miles until we hit the first climb.  I watched Wendy climb up and over that hill as I struggled to make my cross bike move over the loose gravely climb.  After that it was literally 45 miles of a suffer fest for me.  I barely had anyone to work with since; I was on my own.  Again I had front brake rubbing issues but this time with the cross bike.  I tried several times to get that thing to stop rubbing to no avail.  I just dealt with it.  About an hour into the race it felt like my hands were on fire, so I stopped and removed my gloves.  That made a huge difference.  Of course at that time I thought I maybe had 2 hours tops left of the race.  I was way off on that estimate.  Since we had 20 plus mile an hour winds with wind gusts for much of the course I realized quickly that I was going to have a hard time getting to the 1/2 way point at even 15 miles per hour.  I got so frustrated at one point I was swearing out loud at the wind and wishing I had signed up for the 28 mile race.  Finally other women racers came up from behind me and they were working together along the flats - actually I would say the taller woman in the FRCC jersey was working for the other woman who just seemed to stay in her draft.  I latched onto their train and was grateful to catch a break for a while.  I slowly began to feel better and decided to take a pull.  I must have been a little too fast for the FRCC woman or she just didn't care because she dropped off the back.  I then had the hanger on-er lady who I swear was having lunch while I pulled for what seemed like forever.  Eventually I slowed up so she would have to take a pull.  I hung on for a while but eventually her pace was too much for me and I found myself alone once again.  Much of the race after that was a blur until a lady on a MTB started gaining on me.  I suddenly was on some sort of personal mission to not get passed by the MTB racer.  I dug deep and pushed and fortunately held her off to the finish.  I was cooked.  I guess it was good training...I think. 

Wendy opened a can of whoop a$$ on the course and once again came in 1st.  She loves those gravel grinders.