I had a busy weekend and not much time to relax. We drove to Mesquite, Texas on Friday evening and arrived around 10:00 to our magnificent Super 8 motel. We shared a room with my teammate Beth and my other teammate Daniele and Conex Train's Ally were right next door. This hotel was much closer to the race course but smelled really bad. We were up at the crack of dawn for our 8:30 start time and it was already toasty warm. We had around 12 women start the race and for the first 30 minutes it was pretty calm. I got a prime during that time but everything stayed together. Another prime came up and Hannos went for it with Ally in tow. They had a good gap on the rest of us and Daniele jumped across to them. I immediately went to the front to slow it down in the corners a bit so the break would get away. There was an attack in the field on the uphill part and I pretty much blew apart. It totally caught me off guard. But that was the whole purpose of the attack, I suppose. There were only a few more laps to go so I just puttered around until the finish. We ended up with 3rd, 4th and 6th for the day. We went back to the hotel to shower and pack up and then grabbed lunch on our way back to the race course. Charles raced later in the afternoon so we found a big shade tree to relax under for the rest of the afternoon. I think it was almost 100 degrees with a 30 mph wind so for sure, a hot day.

We moved on to the Hampton Inn in Ft. Worth later and ate dinner at this crazy italian restaurant with singing waiters. The food was good but out waitress was quite possibly the worst waitress in the world! The next race was the GS Tenzing crit but was more of a circuit. It was really windy and the course was wide open with no turns. Shannon K went from the gun but the pack stayed together for at least the first half of the race. Again a prime came along and a group of 5 got up the road. I was back in the pack so I just sat on and let those without teammates in the break chase. We ended up with a win! Shontell outsprinted ex-pro Andrea Hannos! So we got 1st, 5th, 7th and 8th on the day. For dinner we met up with Big John from OKC and ate at Uncle Julio's mexican restaurant. The food was awesome and we stopped by Starbucks and hung out there for a bit afterward.

Monday was the TX state championship crit in Ft. Worth. It was the exact same course as it was 2 years ago when I won the cat 3 race and took 3rd overall. I remembered liking the course so I was excited to race. That was until I got gapped early on by a near crash and had to close that gap. Then, on the very same lap, I crashed on this really bad corner! I really don't remember what happened. All I remember is hitting the pavement. My hip bones took the brunt of the fall and I got some road rash on my elbow and the side of my hip. My bike is a little scrathed but not too bad. The worst part was the I fell on my stomach and it felt like someone kicked me in my belly. It took the wind right out of me. I got back up and took off for the wheel pit but I was hurting pretty bad. I tried to hop back in but the pack was going pretty fast and I was struggling to breathe. I felt terrible and I wanted to quit so bad. I made myself keep pedaling and finish the race. Ally ended up soloing off the front for the win and Beth solo'd in for 2nd place. Shontell almost beat sprinter extrodanaire, Jen McRae, in the pack sprint for 3rd. So we ended up with 2nd, 4th, 8th and 10th.

I have more races this weekend in Tulsa. The first one is Friday evening. I am a little intimidated by the fast corners now so I've got to built my confidence back up. Hopefully this weekend is a little better for me than last. I am happy with how my team did but a little disappointed in my own performance.