Bike 4 Women Race Report

It was a busy weekend of races, after coming home from our Tri in Seward I got a good nights sleep and got up the next morning to head out to the Bike 4 Women in Chugiak.  It was another beautiful day so I was looking forward to getting back on my bike, which was surprising after the race the day before.

I arrived at the race course, chatted with some friends, shed some layers and got in line to start the race.  This race is a stagger start so at about 10:45 I was off.  I hit a couple hills right away and just told myself I was banking them for later in the race - the beauty of out and back courses!  The course is pretty hilly with quite a few sharp corners, but the volunteers were amazing about warning you where the big corners and cracks in the road were.

Another great year

At about the half way point I was feeling pretty good until my pedal just stopped, it wouldn't budge!  My chain had gotten stuck so I un-clipped my shoes, jumped off and spent about a minute getting things righted.  I was so thankful it was just a stuck chain that I could easily fix, I didn't want my race to be over!  Continuing on I hit the biggest of the hills and that is where I really felt the work I had put in the day before, my legs were tired.  I was hitting my lowest gear much sooner than I should had.  I just told myself "Okay Kayse its all you now!" 

Pushing hard to the end I was able to pass a lot of people and finish with a 1 second PR ;)  Hey it counts right?  I will definitely count it since I had the chain issue.  After the race I got a free coffee (Thanks Kaladi) and some licorice and loaded my bike up to head home to sit in the sun and ice my shins. 

Beautiful set up of rest and ice

This race is to raise money and awareness about gynecological cancer or cancer "down there" and is one of our amazing women only events in Anchorage.  It inspires me so much to see happy women being active and cheering each other on in events like these, we have an amazing community up here!