Photo by John Wrycza.

Last year, Woodstock was a good race for me. I had second place tied up until I slid out in the last off-camber turn before the finishing stretch and ended up third - my best placing.

Pre-riding the almost identical course this year though, I felt really leaden. Totally low-energy. I couldn't muster the will to run the run-up or do more than step slowly over the barriers. Still, I rode it four times before the masters went off. Then I took a nap in my car.

I lined up after a lackluster warm-up - got a good spot thanks to my call-up - and didn't have a terrible start. Not a great start - I didn't get the hole shot or anything - but I didn't get trapped behind a whole bunch of slower riders either. And once I was out there, I didn't feel too bad at all.

By the last lap, I had caught and passed a number of riders, and had my two teammates, Natalie and Courtney, in sight. I haven't been close to Courtney since Jackson Park. In the maze, Kathy from Project 5 and a junior crashed and the three of us xXxers got in front of her. I worked hard to catch and pass Natalie, but she's SO much better at the barriers than I, I kept falling back. After the run-up, I could see she was faltering - and I should have sprinted around her then - but once we got into the finishing turns, there was no opportunity to pass and she out-sprinted me. We finished third, fourth and fifth - so I finally broke into the top five!

Photo by John Wrycza

I was so buzzed after that, I was excited to race the men's 4bs. I'm not much for beer, so I brought a leftover bottle of Canadian Club [aren't all bottle of Canadian Club sort of left over?] and disposable shot glasses. I like whiskey, I like handups, this seemed like a great combination.

There were two other women in the men's race this week, my teammate Courtney and Katie from Spidermonkey. We got called up to the front of the line along with the Turin guy in the Turkey suit. Heh. I got a pretty good start again, but did get held up behind the Turin turkey for a third of the lap. But once around, I made up some ground. A bunch of guys passed me, but I also passed a few of them back. It was a fast, fun race.

The hecklers were all stationed at the run-up after the second barrier. Dozens of people taunting racers with SPAM, pixie sticks, beer, twizzlers, cupcakes, candy orange slices, cheeto's and, yes, whiskey. On my second lap I got a red velvet mini cupcake - yum. Except for the frosting all over my brake levers. Third lap I spotted the whiskey and grabbed a shot glass, downed the contents and tossed the glass over my head. Went down easy. And then rapidly made me downright tipsy and a bit dizzy. Whisky has quite an effect with your heart rate at 90%. Seriously, its a BAD idea.

I grappled with that for a while - until I realized Courtney was just ahead of me. I managed to pass her in the start/finish stretch, but she got right on my wheel and stayed there to the barriers, where she got right around me and back on her bike while I was still stepping over the second barrier. I chased hard and got close again - but we hit the barrier at heckle hill, and again she proved way more adept than I and opened up a little gap. I again attempted to close before we crossed the road into the off-camber turns, but just couldn't quite make it. She passed another rider and he got in my way a bit - and then he too put in a big final effort and finished ahead of me.

I ended up 38 out of 75 - which I was mighty pleased with. No more whiskey handups, though.