Kristy Kreme Adventures: Silver Cycling Devours a lot of Spam

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Silver Cycling Devours a lot of Spam

July 5th was the 2009 SpamJam Freedom Fest / Dan Unwelling Memorial Bike Race in Austin, MN. It's an annual 25-mile citizen road race that can't be beat! $15 gets ya a t-shirt, snacks, and CHIP TIMING on race day!! No $10 day-of-penalty, no BS..but, no officials so it's partly on the honor system.

Silver lined up at the start w/ our largest field ever - some 18+ guys and gals, ready to rock! Being a citizen race, the guys & gals, old & young all start in one massive group at a time. In recent years, we've had a strong tailwind start to drive the beginning speeds up to 40 mph, but luckily this year was a slight head-wind, so speeds didn't seem to get over 30-35 mph for the first 2 miles.

After a strong double race in Northfield the day before, I was struggling hard to stay with the main group. 12 miles in, though, the fight was over and I was off the back and unable to close the gap. I tried for miles to get back on, digging in at 26.5 mph in the crosswind, but wasn't able to pull it off. Instead, I spent the last 13 miles of the course in a solo time trial effort to the finish. It was lonely and hard, but I pulled it off and was able to come across the line in 4th in the women's field. The best was my teammate Jacki "the OC" pulled off the victory with Madone close behind in 2nd.

Jay pulled off the overall victory for the first time.... the win that has elluded him for so many years was finally his, and he was able to bring home his own "Spam" trophy! He was trying so hard and wanted it so bad that I was so proud to roll across the line and see the smile on his face! If ya didn't know, babe, I am so proud of you!! Actually, I am super proud of all our Silver winners..... Not only do we have treats and chip timing, but there were trophies for the overall winnners, and plaques for the top-3 in each age group!