Some ups and some downs

This past Saturday was the 2nd Colorado Cross Cup race in Longmont at Xilinx. Bryce left really early to drive down to Colorado Springs to ride moto with the boys so I was flying solo for the day. I woke up feeling really groggy and after a solid breakfast I really didn't feel much better. I rode out to the race with Flora and although I wasn't feeling much better, I wasn't feeling any worse. After registering and doing a few laps, I was on the fence about racing as that 'delirious-like' feeling just wasn't going away. In the end, I slammed a caffeinated gel and decided to just go for it and pull out if I started feeling really crappy. 

 

Go figure that after getting the 2nd call up, I screwed up the start because I totally missed my pedal...duh. After getting onto the singletrack, I immediately started making my moves and made my way into 4th where I battled back and forth between 2nd and 3rd over the next 3 laps. There was a barrier section where you could either bunny hop (which was faster) or dismount and run and since I was the only one bunny hopping the section out of the 3 of us, I was able to take that 2nd position each time. However, I would always fall back to 3rd when I had to dismount and jump over the massive barriers on the back side of the course...my hip does NOT like that!

Knowing there was a good chance I could podium, my adrenaline was high and the thought of not feeling well never crossed my mind until half way through the final lap. It was like a switch inside me had simply turned off. I got super dizzy, completely fell off the pace of the other 2 girls and somehow soft pedaled to the finish in 4th where I immediately saw Flora and asked her to hold on to me as I was about to faint. We went directly to the medical truck where I spent the next 30min then got a ride home with some friends and went straight to the hospital to get my blood tested for a possible relapse of Epstein Barr. My symptoms were identical to what happened originally and Tingle (my roommate) just found out she has it too. 

After the way I felt on Saturday, I would have never thought I would wake up Sunday and feel almost 100% normal. My stomach was a bit upset but otherwise the dizziness and deliriousness had completely gone away. There was another Colorado Cup race in Louisville that I had intended on doing but I wasn't so sure it was the right thing after Saturday's insanity. I decided to just go up there with Shelby to show her how to mount and dismount on her new CX bike then make the call at the venue. After a chill warm up and an easy lap, I didn't feel weird so I decided to give it a go and again, just pull out if I felt at all off.

The start was pretty intense but I kept my cool and let the faster girls by and picked off the ones I knew I could withhold. The course was extremely fast and drafting was a huge factor. The 2 girls that I rode with yesterday quickly got off the front and for the final 4 laps I led a train of girls behind me. I had to dig deep but I was able to hold on to 3rd and get back on the podium and win a bit of cash :)

Regardless of my place, I was ecstatic to have finished feeling worked and not dizzy. I should hopefully have the bloodwork back today or tomorrow so fingers crossed that I just had an off day or it's just an iron issue. Huge thanks to everyone out there cheering and hugs to Bryce and Shelby for being a great pit crew.