Liz Heal: Czech capital of Kansas.

This past weekend Steve, Jackson and I packed up the mom-mobile and headed west to Wilson Lake, Kansas for the Midwest Fat Tire Festival hosted by Doug Chambers & Golden Belt Bicycle Company. We didn't get to the park until after midnight on Friday and were greeted with 30+mph winds that made setting up a tent very interesting. We got very little sleep due to the constant whipping of the sides of the tent in the wind and Jackson's paranoid neroses, but (irregardless-which is in fact not a real word but all too commonly used by intelligent people as if it is) were excited to be out of Kansas City in a place with fun, dry trails. I did the hill climb on Saturday morning (twice b/c I stuffed up the 1st run) and the short track in the evening with a XC trail preview ride in between. I was really loving the trails...lots of fairly short climbs, fun fast sweeping descents, random technical spots, longer stretches of minimally technical trail that you could pedal hard through.

No other expert women showed up for the weekend, so I was the lone gal on the short track start line with the expert men. They, along with a few sport guys, promptly pulled away from me from the gun, but I was able to slowly get up to and around those few sport guys by the end of their laps and I was obviously the last finisher of the 8 expert laps. I really love short track races because they're fast and intense like a road crit but you probably won't be in a big group of sketchy riders with the risk of unexpectedly smashing your face/body/bike into the asphalt. I love that you get the encouragement of the spectators on each lap vs a XC race where you might see a person or two every 30 minutes or so. It's also cool because you can see things changing in the race and feed off of the suffering of other riders (that sounds bad, I know) whereas in a XC race (which I really do love as well) I have an uncanny ability to convince myself that everyone else is riding strong and steady the whole time.

Saturday night after the races we hung out, roasted smores and got the best sleep we'd had in days. The wind died down to almost nothing and the skies were crystal clear. The next morning we ventured into the town of Wilson (which happens to be the Czech capital of Kansas) for a homecooked breakfast at a local joint called Made from Scratch-yum!

The XC race began at 11:30 with the expert & sport racers going off together. I ,again the only expert woman, fought my urge to let everyone pass me at the start and I actually headed into the trail in front of some of the guys. I don't know what my deal is, but I hate to feel like I'm holding people up and I spaz out and mess up a bunch when I feel like this, making it worse. Anywho...the race course was gorgeous, the sun was shining and it was warm enough to sweat. I tried to keep myself in race mode even though I was only racing against myself, but many times I found myself just spacing out and enjoying the ride.

We headed home after the race with our worthless dog who had the most fabulous weekend of his entire life. Great times were had by all and I have decided that I love Kansans.