ok...it's just been (and still is) hard to type...

2nd race....woke up sunday morning to rain...thoughts of not driving to W-S and riding were thought about...but i just couldn't NOT GO. there aren't too many entries in my Book of Excuses - the main one being something broke...i'll get to that shortly...

so, i get dressed and head on to the race site in Winston-Salem. arrive at 10am so i could get some good warm up laps in. omg...this course was very muddy. tires on the bike were useless in these conditions. i took my laps fairly cautiously - i didnt want to fall & get too banged up prior to my race. well, that didnt work. lost traction on a muddy off-camber section and went down - banged up my left calf really good (it's all black/blue now). after 2-3 practice laps, all i wanted to do was finish the race. this time, i just didnt care if i was DFL.

we lined up and started 1min after the men. the first lap, i was just content to hang at the back. yea, i was last, 2 women in front of me...all 3 of us were struggling...end of second lap, i passed them on a very short little rise. cranked it up a bit to put distance between us. hit the cobble section, still going a bit too fast, made it through that, but at thetransition to asphalt was the deal breaker...going too fast, a little bit over confident, leaned the bike a tad too much and the ass end of bike went one way and i the other.

dang...crashes happen like "that". very fast. all i remember is hitting it hard on the right side, sliding face down into the bushes. very fortunate that i had no head or facial injuries. i lay there for a minute or so, turn over, look at my knee - meh. then the thumb....i knew something was wrong immediately. hurt like hell. no way i was going to be able to finish the race now. i think there were 9 women racing...i might have been able to finish 6 or 7 outa 9 if not for the crash.

so, that was the end of my 2nd cx race and the winter series. watched my friend Dallas finish his race, then the pro/1/2 (&3's?). those guys/gals are great! walked around talking to some of the other women. the group with orange jerseys were grilling hotdogs & passing out a few beer. had a beer to help ease the thumb pain. that's pretty much it...the rest is history (about the thumb). i'll definitely do the fall cx series this fall. i love it.

now, about the injuries...broke my left thumb just above the last joint. went to dr on monday for x-rays. ribs/right side hurt pretty bad, but nothing appears broken there. but, something is wrong with them...hurts to cough, laugh, sneeze, move certain ways - not as bad today as the other few days. saw the ortho on tuesday, put me in a thumb spica short cast. will get x-rays again in a week to make sure it's still set correctly. i can ride a trainer for this week. after the x-rays and assuming everything looks good, i have the ok to get on the road riding.

not sure how well that's going to work though...i know i won't be able to get warmers or a jacket on over the cast - so if it's cold, i might be relegated to the trainer for 4 weeks. i guess that's better than not riding at all.