KeleKeleBoBelly: Final days of being Tulsa Tough!

What the heck am I doing?? I must have thought it was a photo shoot, not a race! Silly willy!

As you can tell, the race had not quite started to hurt at this point. My tongue was firmly place in my mouth toward the end. My Mom and brother Sam were in this corner taking pictures, I thought I was pretty funny...and so did they! Racing is supposed to be fun, right??

This course had a short but steep little climb (where the previous shot was taken), followed by one of those false flats that really hurt! But luckily, it's followed by a nice decent!

Shontell gave lessons on cornering throughout the race...she had the inside line NAILED, and schooled us all each lap...I think I may have heard her snicker a few times as she swooped on my inside...

There were 2 crashes in the first 10 min on that very same corner. One, Catherine Walberg, was pretty insignificant, in that she was fine, just over cooked it. The second though, Pam Hinton, apparently had a front flat, and we all know how awful that it...she hit her face quite hard....SCARY!! They stopped our race to help her off. The announcer did report, as we were about to restart, that she was up and walking...at which the peloton breathed a sight of relief, and cheered!! Racing is so precarious, and dangerous!

The race had a few solo efforts. I was trying to NOT do too much work...but we needed to win to take the omnium...so I had to chase, with some help from Austin Flyer riders Audry and Danielle. Then Jen McRay got off, and I allowed the gap to open...hoping I would get some help from others...but like myself, I think everyone was thinking, 'Let her go, she's gonna win anyway'..seeing as she was leading the Omnium, and had won Friday. Then I caught myself in my complacance...and a second voice (see, I told you there are many)...'Screw that, I came to race, I'm not gonna lay down and give up. We came to win'. So, I ignited a chase...and as soon as we caught her, Ally countered (great move BTW)...and for a millisecond I was like, 'that's the move, I can't jump, I'm so tired'...then, 'F that, I didn't come this far in this race to give up now' (it was like 4 laps to go)....so I stood and dug...and caught her...whew.

Last lap, I remember suffering, we had just caught Jane Zigler who jumped on the last rise (another smart move)...and I didn't jump quite fast enough which lengthened my effort to close gaps going into the last decent...and then took the last corner behind Ally, and gave it what I had...Shontell rocketed the last corner, dug super deep and got 2nd!! She had really been suffering the entire race, battling w/ herself to continue to dig...then delivered on the final lap!! She's amazing!