Spam Jam 2008

Saturday was my second appearance at the Dan Ulwelling Freedom Fest / Spam Jam road race. The 25 mile road race was mostly flat, completely sunny, and furiously charged by 20+mph winds. Our own Silver Stud, Steve Knowlton, has Austin roots, so we're proud to have the Spam Jam as a fabulous team event each year. Since it's a citizen's race, as well, we all get to start and ride together, no matter the skill level or gender.

At high noon, all 13+ of us lined up on the start line in our black n' white ready to go. As the defending women's 2007 champ, I was super happy to have my 3 best gals riding with me - Amy, Jacki, and Madonna (in costume) all came down for the fun and camaraderie.

Considering we were starting with the men, it's easy to imagine the start was fast. But, throw in that 20mph tail wind for the first few miles - we were flying! I was pedaling my bike up to 34.1mph!!!! I actually ran out of gears! Amy did too, but enough that she fell off the back of the pack. Luckily, I hung in with Madonna, Jacki, Shad, Aaron, Greg, and Joel...but barely. As if it were a life or death situation, I turned my pedals over as hard as I could. Fifteen miles into the race, I was wondering when our pace was going to slow, as we were averaging 26 miles per hour between tail and cross wind sections.

Just when I thought it couldn't get harder, we turned south towards the finish and had to fight the wind that once carried us. Instantly our speed slowed to abut 16-18 mph. We lost Madonna & Shad in a cross wind attack, but tried to keep the team pace line going. Pidde blew me away, riding so hard so soon after his hip replacement! Your doc would be proud, Aaron!!! (either that or really P.O.'d). We knew there was one woman up the road and there was little chance to catch her, but he rode as hard as we could anyway.

Jacki, unfortunately, had a mechanical just a couple miles from the finish and had to drop back. Aaron, Joel, and I kept the pace up all the way to the finish - sitting up proud at the line as we rolled in exhausted. Jacki, Madonna, Shad, and Amy weren't far behind so we all rolled out as a team for a cool down at the end.

Silver Cycling took home a ton of trophies, as usual....Ben Schinke won the overall, with Jay Henderson taking 3rd. I got second for the women's overall and won my age group! Jacki took 3rd, and 2nd in her age; Madonna got 4th (2nd in age); Amy took 5th (3rd in age); Ben's wife Heather got 6th & 3rd in her age group....Steve Knowlton won his age group....and so much more (but I'm sorry to say I've forgotten some of the winners/groups).

Way to Bleed Silver, crue!
Kristy Kreme