"You block your dream when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith." ~Mary Manin Morrissey

I could not WAIT to be able to sleep in this morning. I've waited all week for this. I went to bed around midnight last night (Fri) savoring in the thoughts of how sweet it would feel to sleep as long as I'd like. I can sleep the rest of that parasite right on outta me and I am going to feel SPRY for mountain biking!!! 7:30am I am awakened by the loudest most obnoxious chainsaw in the state of Tennessee. My lovely redneck _____ _________ ______ CLOWN of a neighbor decided he would SAW down bushes by his house at 7:30 on a Saturday morning literally 20 yards from my bedroom window. This neighbor is the one who has the 1973 (& I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt) chevy pickup with no windows (not even plastic with duck tape) that he apparently must MAUL on the gas pedal every morning by 7am in order for it to run. It is so loud he makes my windows rattle & each time I am convinced there's a terrible thunder storm coming through. The joys of a subdivision :-)

On a more positive note, I did something great today. It made me feel awesome! I fixed water bottles, gathered bicycle goods, put my Gary Fisher on the bike rack & headed to Columbia, Chickasaw Trace. As in..... ALONE. That's right folks. All by mySELF! I questioned my sanity at times while getting ready. Am I fool? I do not know how to fix a flat on this bike, I do not know how to do ANYTHING to this bike but reset my computer and clip in my pedals. I am no bike maintenance person. Thus -- it isn't smart to go alone. But... my plan all week was to mountain bike on Saturday & nobody wanted to go but me. I thought of every excuse in the world that I should back out. The bottom line is -- if I want to race in the Chickasaw Classic race next weekend, I gotta go. I can't show up for that race & not ridden the course at MINIMUM one more time. If I don't go today, my @ss aint racing! I had to talk to myself..."Holly just go. Right now you're scared, but think of how much better you'll feel when you make this journey on your own. You're a big girl! Saddle up. Throw your fears aside and stop being so conservative. Don't let fear keep you from reaching your goal." So, I strike out for Chicki!!! Just ME :-) Just 1 bike :-)

So just me and my bike trek off to Columbia. We get there and man was that the spot to be! Cars everywhere. Looks like there may be lots of participants this year in the race. Cool! I get all of my gear on & take off on my bike. Oh boy... I just couldn't believe I have the guts to do this on my own. Mtn biking kicks my BUTT & I've been known to have some pretty nasty crashes! I made the first rocky section further than ever this time before I pushed over the freakin boulders that they are trying to kill us with! Jumped back on the bikey and tried to go fast. I easily made several sections I've hesitated on before. Miles 4-6 are all climbing. I tried to find spots in the trail that were safe and open enough to hammer so I could increase my overall avg speed and decrease my total time. I finally made it to the end of the 8.25 mile trail with a total ride time of 59:25!!!! Yay! Last time my total ride time was 1:04. I was SO pleased! This is still not good enough to bring home much better than last place at the race, but guys...... you just have no idea how far I've come!

I loaded up my stuff with a big smile on my face and headed out. The whole way home I heard 1 great song after another on the radio. It made for a great, sunny, warm, satisfying ride home. I decided I'd celebrate with a french manicure in the boro! HA! Have you EV-ER?!!?!?! This chik goes mountain biking, and stops on her way home at the nail shop? lol. Yeah... who says mountain bikers can't have pretty nails anyways? :-) I found it to be a bit unordinary... but again - it's cute to be unordinary. I guess? lol.