Queens Day Crit

What a victory for PINK today at the Queens Day Criterium. It was massive PINK everywhere!

Cat 4 Ladies were very well represented:
Sara Merritt
Sarah (Mac) McIntrye
Donna Borgman
Heather Frank
Shellie Raisanen
Gail Ranville
Cheryl Havens was signed up but could not make it today... She was sorely missed!

Cat 4 ladies went off at 10:00 for an approximately 30 minute race. There were 19 in the field vieing and competing for prize money 6 places deep. Pink had one seasoned veteran, Sara Merritt, while the rest of us were entirely new to the sport of criteriuming (a new sport and a new word as well!) Yes luckily some of us had made it to the clinic the day before, but for the most part we were New Critters and learning as we went. The 8 corner course was a doozy, but we all got lots of experience and started to feel comfortable approaching the curves, getting the inner pedal up and leaning into it. We all survived marvelously well without a crash or incident to remark on. Sara Merritt finished in the lead pack, but just out of the money. We all were behind her, but no pink finished last. We all loved it and I dare say we are hooked!

Cat 1, 2, 3 ladies all raced together at 11:10. This field featured 12 competitive athletes with money going to the to the top 10 finishers. We had 6 competent, awesome, strong pink girls at the line including:
Jane VanHof (lovingly referred to as biker Jane)
Sarah Williams (familiar to many as Rah! not sure the exclamation point is attached but it should be)
Lori Hotchkin (known as the focused fighter on wheels... not really but she could be)
Heather Kubiak
Tammy Moran
Laura Korienek

This race was strategic with several in the field noting how many RWT women had entered the race!! With 6 riders we were in the majority and were called to take the lead. (After the race Lori confirmed she felt that the town had put on a great event and she wanted the Cat 1,2,3 women's race to show all of the spectators an exciting event, so she made a concerted effort to attack and pull and add excitement. If I may say so myself, it was a great race!!)  The RWT team got out and pulled and lead much of the time. Jane, Sarah and Lori pulled many of the laps. Lori was out there in the lead to win a prem as she dug down and attacked to hit the line first winning a mid-race prize. Nice job Lori! It was an exciting race and Pink had many money winners with Biker Jane on the podium winning not only money, but half of a wooden shoe trophy as well. Everyone did well and represented our Real Woman Team with awesome poise, composure, and  strength.

WE WERE FIERCE! (Thanks Brandy....)

The afternoon was spent reviewing the races, discussing strategy for the next crit and watching the Men race on. It should be noted that there were several Junior Real Women represented. Both Ellie and Kierson also won a wooden shoe! I hope that the excitement of Maddie, Kierson and Ellie's race (is that right????) will be captured by them in a separate blog. We love reading their re-caps!

Saturday Kent ISD Crit Clinic and races

Disclaimer.... I am a novice, beginner.... and you read this blog at your own risk....

Several RWT have suggested the Saturday Kent ISD Criterium Clinic and Races, and this past Saturday was the first of the series that I could make. It was the 3rd of 4 and I thought it was fabulous, so I am blogging to encourage anyone who is the slightest bit interested in EVER doing a Criterium race to get out to the last clinic next Saturday.

Why GO?
1) It is free! You only have to pay the $10.00 day license that the Biking Federation of Biking People collect. (I am not sure who they are, but they collect it and I paid it....There must be a reason...)

2) It was extremely helpful, even getting set up. We all got a number and were taught how to pin it on under our arm pit and sideways....you really need to make friends to get the thing on right....which is good. Donna Borgman and Danielle Nye were there and we all helped each other. Who would have guessed that you don't use the pin holes and you use about 8 pins... but this is just one helpful tip that you learn.

3) They had a 12-15 minute shpeel on all of the nuances of the criterium race. You could ask questions and all questions were answered. The talk included easy stuff, like how to start... as well as technical stuff, like "holding your line" which is following the person closely in front of you and not swerving around causing mass pandemonium, crashes and death. (I especially found this helpful.) On this note, they did also cover crashes: if you do end up in a crash, you take the shortest route to the pit area and the pit people help you and you get a free lap. In the pit you get to sop the blood off of you and get back in where you left off, without being far behind. (I thought this was nice, but hoped to never have to be sopping off any blood.)

4) After learning the details with the kind speech, we all went to the line and they counted off a start 4,3,2,1 go. We all went. There were 3 guys who were from a blue team who rode around with us (14 of us, guys and girls who were at the clinic.) The blue guys answered questions we had while we were criteriumming away....like how to follow, how to take a curve, when to sprint, how to put your inner foot up while taking a curve etc.They were great! We did 3 laps around the course. Nothing like hands on training.... and did I mention free...

5) Lastly why you should do it... You got a water bottle and a coupon for BW3.

I know that you fellow triathletes are out there swimming, biking and running... but you should not miss this opportunity. (I ran my 8 miles before the clinic and ended up with a nice 8 miles on the bike at the clinic!) Fit it in if you can.

Yankee Springs Time Trial- Women 11-14/Middle School

Today was the first race of the MMBA series.  When I arrived at Yankee Springs it was pretty early in the morning.  For most of the day I sat around watching the races.  Quickly the time came around for me to race.  I did a short little preride before I lined up.  When I got to the start I mingled with some of the people in my age group.  The line quickly urged forward.  When I got closer to the start I got really nervous, because I was worried my little sister would pass me.  The person in charge told me to go and I took off pedaling as fast as I could.  Early on there were many people I passed.  Every once in a while, my dad would give me helpful pointers on which part of the trail to pick.  The climbs were difficult followed by technical down hills.  Multiple times I found myself struggling on turns and bumps.  Right before the matted hill Jack caught up to me.  After the top of the matted hill he passed me, but I stayed behind him.  After a few miles I passed him again.  I knew it was getting close to the finish when I started to climb Ol' Piney.  At that point, my legs were so tired I could barely feel them.  I got into the last section and worked as hard as I could. Shortly after I sprinted out of the woods and onto the final stretch.

  I was so happy because of everyone cheering me on.  After I finished, I was out of breath and tired. I waited around for my sister to finish and then went to see the results.  I got 2nd!!  I was so happy with my time too.  I beat my last year's time by over 20 minutes!  When I stood up on the podium, I felt like I couldn't stop smiling:-)

                                                Ellie K.

Ellie 2nd & Kiersen 4th

Mountaineer Pi Run

Race Report (Pi 5K)

Yesterday my mom, Ellie and I went to Byron Center for the Mountaineer Pi 5Krun. When we got there it was cold but the sun was coming up. We were a little late because all of the other people from my school were already there. My sister and I headed in the building to get our numbers. When we got out all of the other “Trail Dawgs” were warming up but we caught most of them. Then we stretched and headed to the start line.  My cousin and I lined up close to the front but not directly in front. When he blew the horn we sprinted down the hill and around the first corner. We caught a lot of people in the first long stretch. Our strategies were to stride down the down hills and hammer it up the up hills. When we turned into the subdivision my cousin was starting to get ahead of me and it seems like every time I caught her she would leave me. We turned onto a different street that had runners going both ways. When we caught two girls from my school and passed them. One of them wouldn’t give up easy and caught us. The three of us were together until we turned at the two mile mark. I was staying with the girl pretty well but we dropped my cousin about half way through that stretch. When we turned on to the second to last road we picked up the pace. I stuck with the girl through the downhill but she dropped me on our way back up. A little bit after she left my cousin caught me. On our way up the very last hill where the finish line was I could tell my cousin was hurting. We sprinted up the last hill and I got her by two seconds. The other girl ended up beating me by nineteen seconds. I ended up getting first place in my age group, so did my mom. .

My time was 27:55, which was faster than I ran at Gazelle Girl last weekend. In the end we all got FREE PIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!      
Kiersen K.

Lowell 50, Gravel road race: 28 mile and 50 mile course (April 6 and Oct 26, 2013)

Go PINK!

Many of you asked how the Lowell 50 went…. here is a recap. Hope it is not too wordy… but it would be a great fall race for many pink to do when we are all in GREAT shape! (This is the race that PINK dominated the overall podium last fall with biker Jane, and sisters Lori and Kathy…and they are on the podium on the home page of the race still!!!) ~ Fall race is October 26th btw.

WELL Angie and I DID  IT!!  Angie has an injury and I had written to the race director and we had permission to drop to the 28 mile race if she was still hurting. Angie had said that she was feeling ok but the weather was iffy… so we had not made up our minds on which race we would do this morning.  I got there and we had to go to our age group folder and sign a waiver. I got pretty excited to find only one other girl in my folder!! WOW I thought…. all I have to do is get out there, do it and wa la I am on the podium… Unless of course 2 other 50 plus ladies showed up for late registration which would knock me off the podium…. unless I pedaled up a storm of course. So while I was waiting for Angie and her husband Joe to get there and I looked in her age group book  40-50 …. WOW Low. Behold. she was the only one in the book! It would take 3 late registrants in that age group to knock her off the podium! I called her on her cell and said "We are SOOOO doing the 50 mile race!!!! There were all sorts of girls in the 28 mile race. Hey hardware is hardware!!

The weather report was snow and rain last night and possibly into this morning. But we really lucked out with a kinda cold 42ish day but no precipitation. The WIND was another thing. It was BEASTLY! At times we literally almost got blown over. There were a bunch of hills in the 1st half but when we were out in the farm land flats for the second half, the wind whipped us like we were kites! Luckily Angie is a very tough cookie (who I started referring to as Iron Angie) and she stayed with me. We  picked up another guy (named George ). He drafted for us for many miles. I tried to pull but could not keep the pace. At times we were only going 7-11 mph with the stinking wind.

Well with 5 miles to go, Geo dropped us, and then I fell off Angie's pace and then more hills started. I know that a 50 mile course will measure a bit longer than 50 miles, but when 51 showed up on my computer and plus a few more hills …. I was not smiling. Then I figured well I really don't have much choice but to press on. I mean I could not exactly hop off the bike and say "hey I only signed up for a 50 miler"  I guess I should have thought WOW, extra miles and all for one low price! (But no, I was not saying that!) I could see Angie in the distance and that kept me going. And all I could say was ditto when mile 52 rolled around! Needless to say the hills and the wind kept coming. (I pictured getting my permanent magic marker out when I got home and marking up the water bottles they had given us… changing the Lowell 50 to a Lowell 52 with my marker…) I am not sure if the race ended at 52 or 53 but it ended. And I was happy when I saw at least one other biker behind me!

We both made the podium for our age group… and Masters for that matter!  Merry  VanderLinnen from Flying Rino beat both Angie and I. 

We did the ride in about 3:52. With the wind this one was one tough mama…. but no snow and no rain. That was good. A special thanks to Danielle, who was out there cheering us on and taking photos. She was supporting her husband who was in the race as well. And last but not least Joe O'Brien (Angie's husband who calls himself Man of Real Women Tri) was sooooo supportive. Thanks Joe!

Overall, a good pink day! See you all out there in Oct...