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I was not nervous on the morning of August 8. August 8 would be a day for new experiences. I have been racing and riding mountain bikes since 2003. It was never in my sights to race internationally as a newbie. I was simply excited with the new sport I had discovered (and started racing 1 month after learning to ride on trails). It came natural to me, but all I wanted was to be a pro, and after 2 quick years, I was, and after 6 years of racing, here I was in Germany wearing a USA jersey.

The more experienced international pros probably don’t think twice about some of the new things I got to do. One of my friends asked me, “What was it like to put on the USA jersey? I would have been in tears.” I will give you the honest recount. First I looked at the package. I had requested a small because that’s the jersey size I always wear, but I was not familiar with the brand this time. I took it out of the plastic and held it up. I was expecting the background to be blue, but it was white and I felt a rush through my stomach. Butterflies. Schmetterlinges in german. It was about 11 o’clock at night, but I didn’t want to wait till morning. I tore open the package for the shorts like a little kid finding gifts from Santa Clause. The shorts fit perfectly and they were blue. The jersey – full zip. I put it on and started zipping…’oof, a little tight on the chest. Not a bad thing to be a well-endowed girl, but let’s just say I was glad the jersey was made of stretchy materials.’ Then I looked in the mirror and everything stopped. I just looked. Then I smiled. When I posted on twitter/facebook “sometimes you look in the mirror and see something you never would” I meant it. America is a land of “patriots” so I felt very proud and honored to be one of two women to wear a jersey that was so much more than some material from a factory with ink on it. It meant my country put its faith in me to represent them as a mountain biker and I was going to work my hardest to do that.

I woke up at 6 AM and moseyed down to breakfast. 6 AM in Germany is 10 PM the day before at home, so that was interesting. I look half asleep in this photo:

… but ready to go!

I got into my appropriate start box, which we normally don’t have at USA races. You go in a bull pen with other girls with number plates in your range, and they call you up one by one. We get call ups at USA races, but you just stand back from the line in a group. Since the majority of my races are NOT UCI, I barely have any points meaning back row call up.

The German announcer said my name “Zonya Looney, U – S -A (oo, ssss, ahhh)” and I smiled and lined up on the running track. We stood there for about 10 minutes. Smiling spectators lined the track and I looked back at them with the same reflection. A lady said something to me in German which I did not understand. I smiled and knodded at her. I looked around at the women from different parts of the world and thought, “This is what it feels like to line up at a world championship.” Some seemed to be relaxed and others seemed to be very serious and nervous. I felt relaxed, confident (for some reason), and happy. I am usually a pretty good starter and can jump up in a group pretty quickly (thank you Boulder Short Track) so the back row start wasn’t too stressful, especially given that the race was not on singletrack. I was lined up next to a South African girl and we exchanged a few words in English. With 2 minutes to go, everything got very quiet. 10 seconds to go. Those 10 seconds seemed to take forever. The start was not nearly as fast as I thought it would be.

According to a lot of other racers, this year’s course was very different than in previous years in that it was basically a road race on dirt and mowed fields. I was cursing myself for not preparing properly, but I didn’t know I would be racing here until 3 weeks ago. If I could have planned a few months in advance, I would have been doing road group rides and maybe even a road race or two. I do about one group ride per YEAR and haven’t lined up for a road race in probably 3 years. I even have a flat bar on my road bike these days. I also would have done a few more XC races to get my speed up, but I have been preparing for my A races in the US and have delivered at most of them!

I found myself riding in the lead group of about twenty women. It was really sketchy to be screaming down choppy fields and have everyone braking for the corners. There were several near misses for crashes. Some of the racers were erratically shifting around in the pack making things very dangerous. You could hear other racers mumbling things when this would happen. We got to the first aide station pretty quickly which was about 7 miles into the race. Another mile later, I got sick of the sketchy pack riding and it was slower than I wanted to go. Tactically what I did is very stupid and I knew that, but I thought, “well, my chances of winning this thing are so slim. I think I’ll take a chance for experience. I want to ride in front.” So… I worked my way up the side of the pack and plopped myself in front of the group. To my surprise, no one tried to take this spot from me. I knew I was working the hardest being in front and pulling. Then another though crossed my mind, “Maybe I’ll up the pace a little and see what happens.” So I did. I started to push. We rounded a corner and went uphill, so I pushed up the hill. I didn’t look back. We rounded a corner and descended down another field. The lead moto was waiting. When he saw me, he started up the motorcycle. My bike and I screamed down this paved descent. I glanced over my shoulder and I was off the front…not by much – maybe 20 seconds, but for that mile or two I was in the lead. I knew I was being stupid so at the next corner, I backed off and let myself get swallowed back up by the pack. It was a fun experience to ride off the front, even though it was a stupid move and I knew it wouldn’t last. Why not? I was actually surprised no one came after me. They probably thought, “Look at that stupid american girl. What does she think she is doing?!” haha

Our pack had gotten smaller, and I was hanging on at a hard but comfortable effort. The road kicked up and I was on the left side of the pack. A girl in a blue kit capriciously swerved over. Her butt hit my handlebar hard knocking me off the road into the woods. I managed not to crash, but my feet were off the pedals and I was out of control trying to save it. I came to a complete stop before hitting a tree. I was angry and had to run with my bike to get back on the road. By then, the pack had gone. I was dropped. I didn’t give up. I chased and chased in the wind by myself. I thought for sure I would be able to catch back on, but to no avail. I finished the first lap and came through Aide 3. I was told that I was 7 minutes back. I downed my favorite mid race drink – Starbucks Doubleshot hoping to get some more gas and continue the fight. Then the trouble began. My stomach. Oh my angry stomach. I felt pain. It was churning from my stomach to my guts. My legs gave up on me at that time as well. A train of 6 girls blew by me (my teammate, Krista Park was in that train and encouraged me to jump on) but I couldn’t. My legs turned to lead. I tried to drink a lot of water to wash away the trouble. It was difficult to eat because anything I put in my stomach would make it feel worse. I knew I was losing more and more time. I was thankful that for about 5-10 miles, I got to ride with a girl from Croatia. She spoke english, so we rode together and chatted.

Then, some excitement happened to get my mind off trying not to shit my pants and my powerless legs. (For real… I was worried that I WAS going to have a little accident in my chamois, GROSS) The men’s race came zooming by. They started 45 minutes behind us and I kept listening for their lead moto and finally I heard it. I was excited to see their race and just hoped I wasn’t on one of the rare sections of singletrack when the leaders came by. I looked over my shoulder and saw a group of about 7 guys. Thomas Dietsch was leading the charge and I noticed that one of my new friends, Karl Platt was in that group. I yelled for him. About 1-2 minutes passed and I kept looking for group 2. My teammate, Alban Lakata was in that group wearing the Austria jersey. I yelled loudly after him. GO ALBAN GO! All the men were very polite. After that, I lost my Croatian friend and was alone again for the remainder for the race. I was very disappointed that I had bad luck with my stomach. Despite it hurting more, I kept drinking from my bottles. The last thing I wanted was cramping, dehydration, and a rotten gut. I came into Aide 4. I was embarrassed at how far back I had fallen. I was now about 30-40 minutes back from the leaders. Horrible feeling to go from 7 minutes back to 30+ minutes back in about 20 miles.

I noticed with about 20 kM to go, my legs started to feel light again and my stomach had temporarily let up. “I can pedal!” And that I did. I pushed as hard as I could the last 12 miles to make up whatever time I could salvage. I made up a couple of spots and was gaining. I knew where I was on the course and I knew it was almost over.

I crossed the line in 30th place in 5 hours and 10 minutes (for 68 miles). I finished wishing there was more track so I could catch more people! As I was finished, they were doing the podiums. That is the wonderful thing about European racing is that the podiums seem to be very fast after the finish whereas in USA, it can takes HOURS! The thing that took the cake for me was seeing that ALBAN LAKATA WON THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP by 5 seconds! He was very smart and patient, and attacked with 5 kM to go. Simply amazing. Esther Suss won the women’s race.

It’s not every day you can sit next to a World Champion.

Results: HERE

My teammate, Sally Bigham took 8th place even with some cramping. Pretty amazing!!! Krista Park finished in 27th. I know she and I are both disappointed with our finishes in this race, but I guess you have to start somewhere!

I saw tons of people taking photos, but haven’t been able to find any for my blog post. Oh well… if I find more, I will post them.

Here is a German TV video that someone sent to me. It’s about Sabine Spitz but I’m in it. haha Minute 2:38.

Click here

Cool too because you can see some of the race!

…and much rejoicing at the victory party (after spending ample time in the bathroom after the race with lingering stomach treachery) haha

Next year, the race is in Italy. I hope I am able to get selected again because I think the course will better suit my riding (aka more singletrack and technical riding) I am also rethinking Starbucks Doubleshot in races. It has been so good to me, but this time was a very bad choice. I wonder why this time?

Monday, I went back to Koblenz and have been enjoying some relaxation before going back home tomorrow (Thursday). I have some cool things to share from the last couple of days too!

Preview:

My next blog post will be on my new site that is still under a bit of construction. You’ll see!

Yesterday, I rode the parts of the course I missed. It’s all very similar and at race pace will be very painful!

Plenty of gravel in the pain cave

Proof there is some fun singletrack on the course

Thanks to Lars, our mechanic, for taking great care of us. That is my lovely teammate – Sally Bigham.

Today, I met up with Krista and we did an hour spin on the last section of the course.  It relaxed me to ride with someone I know, who is having similar experiences here in Germany.

Harvesting wheat… for beer, and for all the yummy bread.

My USA teammate, Krista.  The irony of it?  We both were born in New Mexico and we both graduated from UNM Electrical Engineering program for undergrad.  Is there something in the water… or perhaps in the green chile?  Her husband Todd has been a great support too!

I saw this outside someone’s house by the garbage. Whoaaa crazy! Jager bombs?

The grocery store here is surprisingly HUGE. Like 3 stories and a moving sidewalk for your cart. A German man was watching me take this. I tried so hard to be discreet so I didn’t look like a stupid american, but I failed…and he laughed.

THREE aisles of sweets. I will be returning next week to buy some fun stuff to bring home.

I was overly amused riding in Dave and Sally’s van. They are from the UK, so the steering wheel is on the right. Weird!!

I have spent most of my time in the hotel, doing it all right. I wake up, enjoy a german breakfast, get out on my bike (ride to the venue, ride parts of the course), come back and sit in bed or nap, eat dinner, then go to bed.  This is something I’m not used to.  I’m used to being constantly busy, constantly on the go and NO time to relax.

A few pre-race thoughts.

I am not nervous.  The night before marathon nationals, I was a nervous wreck.  For this race, I have no expectations.  My only goal is to ride my hardest and hope with all my heart that my legs feel good.  I have learned a tough lesson with jetlag, and it really effects your body for racing.  The nervous system is still asleep.  I hope mine is awake and ferocious.  If I had a chance to redo it all, I’d come out even earlier.  I know I am capable of doing really well, I want to do really well.  I want more than anything to feel at my strongest pedaling up that first hill and charge through the race like Wonder Woman(haha) in my kit.

A tremendous THANK YOU to my sponsors, especially Ergon.  I could not have done this amazing adventure without you. Thank you to my Topeak Ergon teammates here, and especially to Dirk(our team manager), Lars (team mechanic), and to Theresa and Werner (team physiotherapists) for all your hard work.

I feel incredibly lucky to have this opportunity in my life and am not taking one second of it for granted.  I feel fortunate for all the wonderful support I have from my friends – it has been overwhelming to see that, especially on facebook.  Wow!   This experience something I will always have and always remember, regardless of the outcome tomorrow.  Hard work does pay off.  I will always know that I was selected and rode the World Championship representing my country in 2010.

Bring it on!!!!!!!!!!!!  Let’s kick some ASS!

I’m doing what all good little pros are supposed to do. Sit in bed wearing compression socks and drinking lots of water. I wonder how many days I can keep THAT up

Today was my first full day in St. Wendel. I like this little town from what I’ve seen. The hardest part about racing here is NOT walking around all day long. I want to walk up and down a bunch of streets and snap photos of all the old, white buildings and go laugh at some of the Euro fashion shops, but I am attempting to conserve energy. My trip to Germany has been fun so far! I’m actually really lucky I came here back in May, because now I kind of understand how things work although my German could use some serious work! Simple things suddenly don’t become quite as simple… but I like a challenge. I’m extremely lucky because my team – Topeak Ergon, is based in Germany and I have the best people in the world supporting me, and setting an example for me (my European teammates are all top-notch, world class athletes, and it shows). I feel like a freshman entering high school again… inexperienced and maybe a little embarrassed around them. They are super nice, but this is my first time racing in Europe. Translation – amateur hour? But then I give myself the pep talk…the one that I appreciate from all my facebook/twitter supporters. “Sonya, you deserve to be here. You earned this. Believe in yourself.” Intimidation factor for me is admittedly higher than I’d like, but it’s exciting. It’s a whole new experience. Morale factor is high. I’m excited and extremely fortunate just to be here.

Back in May, I got to fully take in German culture meaning lots of pig eating, and sampling a variety of beers. Today, I realized I haven’t had a real German on this trip. I am not freely slurping one of my favorite beverages, but I decided that changing my ways just because it’s a world championship isn’t the way to go, so I finally enjoyed a German beer! and make it DARK (dunkel)

Just one though… and early in the evening and not right after a ride. See? I do have some tact.

Let me backtrack. This morning, I enjoyed another lovely german breakfast. The bread is so good…as is the jams, fruit, muesli, yogurt, and various meats and cheese. I normally don’t ride a lot before a big race, but I needed to inspect the course. The race is 2 different loops totaling 107K or 67 miles. A lot of it is road, doubletrack, or mowed fields but there is some little bits of singletrack to get my blood boiling with excitement. Short little bites of it. There is some climbing too… sharp, short little bites of that too…enough to zap your energy. Enough for you to say, “man, my legs feel like crap from something, and my heart rate is really low, and wow, I feel like shit today.”

Course profile.

I enjoyed the scenery today like I said I would. It was very Oregon-like. Lush, humid, mossy, and really muddy from the rain. I even had some company for half the ride – our team mechanic Larry who is FAST! zooooom!

Oregon has though banana slugs I posted a photo of a few weeks back. Germany has these bright orange slugs…everywhere. It’s kind of fun!

I didn’t enjoy how my body felt. I have found out that jetlag really takes a toll on the legs. I had zero power and could barely get my HR out of zone 2 or “riding along” heart rate, but the effort felt much harder, so I tried not to push too hard. Tomorrow is a new day. I drank a lot of water today, ate a lot of food, and laid in bed for the afternoon. Hopefully that will help because I know what my race beast looks like on a good day, I saw him last weekend on a training ride and he is mean and hungry. I want him to appear, foaming at the mouth on race day.  Patience and faith that they will come around.  Fingers crossed.  If not, Sunday will be… not a great day.  haha.  They will feel better.

Pics from the pre-ride.  I rode the 2nd lap of the course.

The wind generators hovering 100s of feet above the course are so cool and poetic.

and huge..that is a person up there.

Mowed bumpy fields….

Wheat. Wheat thins?

Forest doubletrack.

Singletrack

Cornfields

Get it, Larry!

and muddy messes to clean up when the ride was over.

“your face is a muddy mess!”  My face, I mean…   Your face jokes, like “that’s what she said” jokes…do not get old.  I probably rode too long today… 3.5 hours but if that doesn’t get the blood flowing in and out of my veins, I don’t know what will!

I met up with Krista and Todd Park. Krista is the other woman from the USA racing.

Teammates? shake and bake! Does that blow your mind?

I got my USA kit today. It means a lot to me to wear this kit.  It’s something that every racer dreams of.
Tomorrow, our little crew will be joined by the rest of the team and support crew. I can’t wait! I’ve enjoyed hanging out with Lars, Sally, and Dave!

And a few from town right outside our hotel.

Off to bed.  Schlafen. Sleep.  G’night!

Here a couple of quick pics I snapped. The course is mostly road/dirt road/double-track. That’s kind of a new thing for me as we are used to (and spoiled) with lots of singletrack in our races. That means one thing – it’s going to be FAST!

The scenery was great. I’m glad I’m pre-riding the course over the next 2 days so I can enjoy the scenery because I have a feeling I won’t be looking around much in the race with my tongue hanging out on my top tube, and my eyes crossed from the pain!

I love German breakfast. Speaking of, it’s time to go eat some German Frühstück!

I’ll get more pics up of the course later. I have a longer ride planned to get my body back on the riding program, and my head in the game. I still can’t believe it when I see arrows and signs saying, “Marathon World Championship.” I am really here.

I left the USA on Monday, and arrived in Germany on Tuesday! I had a crazy week leading up to my departure, so sitting on the airplane for 9 hour was actually a relaxing and welcome experience. I had to move over the weekend as well, and have some nesting/unpacking to do when I get back. But for now, I can finally start focusing on one thing – the marathon world championships. I’m trying not to focus on it too much, because then I’ll get nervous. I focused a little too much on our marathon national championships, turned myself into a head case and couldn’t perform on race day. I’m hoping to NOT repeat that this weekend.

My first day in Germany nice. My Ergon family welcomed me and it was fun to return to the Ergon World HQ in Koblenz, Germany. We even had a picnic by the Rhine river.

and I got to enjoy Koblenz!  It was fun to return here after visiting Koblenz for Ergon meetings back in May.

Coffee… very useful for jet lag.

You know you’re in Europe when the streets are narrow!

I’ve been anxiously watching the Colorado Trail Race that started on Monday…  Check it out here Self supported, navigated, and 500 miles mostly on singletrack.  I can’t think of anything much more epic.  Good luck to my very brave friends, especially Jeff Kerkove, Eszter Horanyi, Cat Morrison, and Dave Harris.

Today, we will go to St. Wendel and I’ll get to start inspecting the course.  I heard it’s a lot of fireroad which doesn’t really play to my strengths on the bike, but that’s ok!  Go big or go home!

My skis WILL touch down here this winter.

I got in a good little training block before starting the grand taper to Worlds. 3 days. 2 hour ride Friday, 6 hour ride Saturday, 5 hour ride Sunday… almost exclusively on singletrack, and all badass riders.

The weekend can be summed up in photos.

Saturday, there was about 10 of us.

Um, dude. Your bike? Unicycle??? HOW?!?!?! And furthermore, how can I sell you Ergon grips if you don’t have a handlebar?

I was kicking myself for forgetting my helmet cam.

Pete’s communal meat stick. I swear when you bit into it, pockets of fat would seep out. haha

The wildflowers were off the hook.

Goobers.

Re group.

Guns Masticator.

By the time we got to this lake…I ran towards it lickety split and got in. Chamois and all. At least I took my helmet off.

Powder…. Pig.

The top.

Kelly Boniface is one of my favorite race buddies. We were working on our game face. She wins.

A looong sweet downhill. Butterflies in tummy.

Massive rewards after 6 hours in the saddle.

Sunday was a smaller group – myself, Dax Massey, Nate Bird, and Essam Welch

The trail was more “underground” style riding. Trail that was not buffed…but loose, technical, and with tons of fallen trees to hike up and over.

Sometimes hiking is part of an epic ride.

I was cursing my short legs.

The group taking in the view at the summit at aha – Summit Park.

Hey boys. These two (Dax and Nate) are racing duo at Trans Rockies in 2 weeks. Git ‘em.

Kids bday parties have pinatas and pin the tail on the donkey. Grown up parties have things like very sharp samurai swords.

Peoples’ bdays such as:

Birdie and…

Rob the Carni

in action.

Max. I want one.

Couldn’t think of a more beautiful night to end a weekend to remember.

Here is a secret…. my blog is going to have a new look very soon!

I took a couple days off after the epic weekend and headed to short track for my last one of the year. Unfortunately, my race ended pretty quickly. I was stoked that I rode right off the front of the race, but I guess I was a little too excited. I went down pretty hard in a corner and couldn’t pedal anymore. Very very bad timing before worlds. I admittedly was choking back tears of disappointment and frustration. I’m doing a bit of icing… I now have what looks like two kneecaps. Nothing major, but I don’t have many precious days left between now and worlds. It’s not a bad thing I have to rest, but I had some things I wanted to get done on the bike. Oh well. That was my first crash in a short track so I consider myself lucky.

Back to packing and moving…. and packing….

Right now, I am cramming.

Cramming my belongings into boxes, and those boxes into my car, so I can cram them into my new apartment. Most of those boxes will remain unopened until probably the week of Aug 16.

Cramming my work into small packets called very efficient hours so I have time for everything else.

Cramming for my Anatomy and Physiology exam tomorrow, which I have been attempting to work at all along, but inevitably got behind with traveling to Oregon and choosing to get in a fun training block/vacation. (sorry Dr. P!)

Cramming as many miles in on singletrack with friends as I can without tiring myself out.

Cramming all my stuff into a suitcase and bike box by Sunday for a week and a half to jetset off to Germany for WORLDS (!!!!!!!!) + extra. YESSSSSSSSSSS!

Cramming in as much time with people I care about.

Cramming in sleep, and maybe food in my face

Cramming in blogging……

and now back to cramming for my test. Busy? I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Details:

Wheel itself: Custom built XRC 330 CARBON rim, 190 Ceramic Hubs, DT Aerolite Spokes

Magura rotors: SL Rotor (and brakes)

Continental Tires: Front: X King (tire to be released to the public in 3 months) Rear: Race King Supersonic

Cassette: SRAM XX supa light
Stan’s: latex sealant

Thank you to my wonderful sponsors. Light wheels are good tires are sooo important!

I was keeping some of the racers company during the tough sections. Little French is one of the toughest sections of the race, and is also part of the Firecracker 50 course. It’s steep, loose, longer than you want it to be, and a high point. I turned around and I saw this guy.

He had probably been up since 4 AM, signed up for the Breck 100. He had also most likely been riding for about 7 hours at the time I took this picture (the race started at 6 AM)

If you think about it, looking at this picture provokes more than just thinking, “That guy is exhausted, probably a little demoralized, and maybe wondering how he can move forward.” To me, this scene was very poetic because we’ve all been there. Maybe on the bike, and certainly in life. He has a choice. Give up right there. Throw in the towel, say “I can’t do this.” Or option number two. Lift his head high, and take another step forward, and then another.

The definition of persevere: “to persist in anything undertaken; maintain a purpose in spite of difficulty, obstacles, or discouragement; continue steadfastly.” This is why I am an endurance racer. Continue steadfastly despite difficulty.

There are so many things in our life that make us want to give up, stop and maybe even be afraid to move forward. Things that make us want to curl up in the fetal position. Sometimes perseverance is the only thing that we have. For someone who is in great danger or dying, having perseverance may be the difference between life and death. The will and courage to fight despite ostacles. We may be physically exhausted, emotionally exhausted, or feel trapped. Looking at this picture represents a very dramatic, genuine human emotion, and the fact that we do have a choice. The feeling of being down and out, but having faith that you can still succeed.

Perseverance is what drives me in life. I will ALWAYS keep moving forward. How about you?