Mean girls, scratchin' and spittingMean girls, can't be forgiven Mean girls, make mean women Mean girls

- Sugarland

It started in Athens on Saturday evening. The town was packed from college students dressed up to the nines, kids running around, the Red Bull bmx performers, and people lining the streets. It took forever to push through the crowds to get on the course and to the staging area. As I rolled past, kids held out their hands for high-fives. It was such a treat! Our race was being broadcast live.

Our race started with a prime. The pace picked up with Van Guilder's Mellow Mushroom team controlling and Erica Allar. I sat in just waiting with patience. The pace wasn't as fast as I had anticipated, but if you were at the back of the pack, there was a significant slinky effect and you would have to work your tail off through each turn. At 10 laps, I felt my rear wheel go flat on the back side. I pulled off the course and darted to the pit through the mass of people. "Excuse me, excuse me!!" I yelled as I tried to move around the swarms of people. Finally, I made it to the pit, got a new wheel, and was back in the race.

After about 15 laps into the race, I moved up and starting making rotations on the front. There were many prime opportunities and I tried for a few, but didn't have any success. With about 15 laps to go, I attacked past the start/finish line and into the turn. I was able to create a small gap, but soon, the Mellow Mushroom squad was on my tail. We kept moving consistently lap after lap. My teammate Christy was also working up at the front and riding strong. With 2 laps to go, I moved up onto a good wheel. The corners were crazy and the streets were packed!

One lap to go. I was in a good spot and moving forward. It was all or nothing. First turn, second turn, and down the back stretch. Then as we were approaching the third turn, I was the girl in front of me start to wobble, and soon her bike came from under her. I thought I was going to just miss, but then all of a sudden I was flying through the air and landed on my left side, with my head hitting the pavement, hard. I just lay there, catching my bearings. I knew that I didn't break anything, but my head had hit hard. I saw the rest of the field fly by and soon a kind man came over and helped me up. The paramedics came too and gave me the concussion test which turned out I was ok! My teammate Colleen was at my side too and soon the kind doctor walked me back to the car. "If you feel nauseous or anything, don't hesitate to come by the hospital and I'll check you out," he said. "I'm an ER doctor and have seen lots of cyclists today." Colleen chirped in, "Well, I feel nauseous and light-headed from the race!" I laughed, "Ha ha, me too! Don't think it's from hitting my head!" My helmet was broken and the bar tape was sheared off the right side of my bike. So, overall, it was a pretty lucky fall.

I called Aaron, "Is anything broken?" he asked.

"Do you mean on my body, or my bike?"

"Your bike. Your body can heal."

I laughed.

The following day was a crit in Roswell. Colleen's boyfriend Kirk was kind to let me borrow some white bar tape to re-tape my bars and lend me his helmet. It was my first time ever taping a bar, so I was overall impressed with my taping job. When we arrived to the race, I found the SRAM guys and had them go through my bike to get it more tuned up and ready for the race. I also found a chiropractic booth and a great chiro from Gorman Family Chiropractic to help get my body adjusted from my big spill.

The Roswell crit was also packed with spectators. It was hot but the heat didn't really get to me. The race was notorious for crashes, and soon I found out why! The course moved from a straight start/finish area and counter-clockwise onto a more narrow road, shooting down into a left turn onto a wider road, and left onto the main drag. Immediately the problem became apparent that the field would bunch up on the back side, fight to move forward, and then finally stretch out on the main stretch. It was just into lap 3 when we were on the back side and I saw a girl about 4 wheels up start to wabble, and soon a pile of us came crashing down. I fell and landed right on the same side as the night before. Ugh! This time, my head didn't hit (thank God since I was borrowing a helmet!!), but my neck whipped sideways. I got up. Colleen was also down but she was ok. I rolled down the road and to the pit. My bike was fine. As the field came by, we rolled back into the race. My body hurt and needless to say, I became very cautious about people moving around in the field. On the next lap, there was another crash! It was to my left, so I missed it, but I couldn't believe how jumpy the girls were!

I sat in the pack for several laps and at one point chased down an attack, hoping that my effort might stretch out the field. It was short-lived as the field came up and bunched up again. I sat back in. Christy was riding strong, so I had offered to give her a lead-out for the finish. But as the officials never gave us lap cards until 5 to go, we were lost on what time was left in the race. At 5 to go, I moved forward and found Christy. But at 3 to go, I was pushed back. It was chaos and hard to move around. I wasn't in the right spot to help her, but I saw her up ahead. We had 1 to go, and it was too late for me to move up. She was able to finish strong, but I was just in the field.

My body hurt. My neck was a little jacked up and I found the Gorman Chiropractic booth again. "What happened?!" they asked. "I crashed again! I need another adjustment!" She put me on the table and worked her magic. Afterwards, Colleen and I changed and found the beer tent and enjoyed a cold refreshing New Belgium.

Two down. Five to go. There's no knowing what adventure lies ahead, but all I can say is that I'm going to put my 'mean face' on and start letting them have it!!