Post-Race Reflection

Paris to Ancaster
The short of it is, I survived!! I made it to the finish with a time of 2 hours 38 minutes and 48 seconds (and it ended up being only 57 km rather than the dreaded 70).
And above all God was gracious and good! 2 km from the finish I was practically singing about it.

The long of it, I was a nervous wreck this morning, I felt the energy draining from me because I was so nervous about the race, the unknowns. Not cool.
In the early hours I had my "power pancake" breakfast, a favorite of mine , and got my things together, chilled and rode over to a friends house where a bunch of my Westdale riding buddies were meeting up to carpool to Paris.
Good to have people to be around before the ride.
There were a number of different waves to keep the course from getting too congested. I was in the second wave (technically the 3rd since there was also an elite/vip wave).
Did a warm-up, had a last bathroom break, got into the starting pack (of roughly 300 ppl) and got ready to ride.
We rode out hard, and my heartrate spiked and stayed in a high place for pretty much the entirety of the race. Thankful for the grace, for the incredible day, the decent temperatures and sunshine, for the confidence that I could ride this thing, for a bike to be able to ride!, for disc brakes, for No mechanicals, for a great attitude (well, once I was on the bike riding and the nervousness laid aside), for sufficiency in energy, for the fact that it was only 57km instead of the dreaded 70, for riding through conditions that I'd have freaked about had I thought too much about them- I actually rode most of the dreaded and much feared mud chutes!

Thankful for God's presence with me, and the prayers that I felt encompassed by, for the ability to handle to bike well and well... to put it like a fellow rider commented on "point and shoot", yeah!, thankful for being able to ride when my legs were cramping up severely right before the last big, daunting hill, thankful that I was able to ride all the way up to the finish and not get off my bike!
I was able to smile, and that meant so much. I was able to enjoy the race for what it was despite the utter craziness of it all, I was able to beat the guys I wanted to beat from my cycling group :), I did finish strong placing 9th out of 29 in my age category and 25 out of 88 women who raced.
The race was as crazy as it was said to be, going from paved road, to gravel road, to the rail trail, to the path around a farmers field, back to road, then through a mucky out of the way trail, back to road, up hills, down hills, dodging other cyclists (who, fortunately were well spaced most sections, so not as freaky as I though it would be), and the incredibly soupy mucky downhill slides that I rode like a nutbar down (funny, at one point I was leaning so far back off the seat that I couldn't brake and got stuck behind the seat and ended up crashing gracefully into some soft mud, laughable, I got back on and continued rather than walking though).
So yeah, out of my element but what a blast! (I can say that now...)
Post race party was great, got the bike hosed down, my shoes hosed down, myself showered, enjoyed good food and good company and community. One of our riding guys won 6th overall! Freaking amazingly strong guy.
And now I am really tired, but it's a good tired :) But I have a lot to be thankful for :)
 SO sore, my legs are cramping and aching. I imagine going to work tomorrow will be a rather painful experience...