Today, three things stood out: more wild mushrooms, dead trees that looked like bears and that mountain bikers dream state of flow, which came in abundance today.

If I had to re-name the stage, I’d call it “the gift.” I say this because even though we managed to squeeze 7,800ft of climbing in, the pay back was seriously outrageous; the good kind of outrageous. I’ve ridden parts of the Colorado Trail before, but today’s sections were glorious at race pace. Imagine gliding through a canopied forest on a magic carpet of pine needles and tacky dirt.

The skies were ominous at the start. You can’t argue with the weather in the Colorado mountains; You take what you get and you don’t ask questions. The storms can roll in as quickly as they can roll out, but you don’t always get that lucky. Today, we got lucky. Just about 5 minuets after everyone put on their rain jackets in anticipation for a wet ride, we could see beautiful blue sky behind the storm clouds. Lucky.

I started off at a more relaxed pace then yesterday and continued to feel strong into the first climb. I committed myself to riding everything I could today instead of getting off in frustration and hike-a-biking, even if everyone else around me was. This is why I’m here, I kept saying to myself, to get to know that oh-so-uncomfortable feeling even more intimately. It pays off in big grins the more times you go there, but not necessarily in the exact same moment…

After climbing up, over, and down the other side of Westridge on the Colorado trail, I found myself in a beautiful meadow where fellow Breck Epic race blogger Thom Parsons was dealing with a flat tire. Later he caught up to me and explained that it was his THIRD flat. Very unlucky. It gave me more gratitude for the good fortune I’m enjoying thus far and hope to continue to surf throughout the race. This is the unexplainable, sometimes magical, sometimes completely downright annoying part of the sport that I love. Sometimes all the stars align, sometimes they don’t.

Wild mushrooms, wildflowers and dead trees that looked like bears made great company today while riding alone for most of the race. I enjoyed the solitude and the mystical surroundings. By the time the mushrooms started turning purple, red with white stripes, and bright orange I though, just for a moment, that I had been eating them again. But, before I could get lost in another bit of hallucinating on the side of the trail, I realized that Mirelle Montiminy and Jill Damman were breathing down my neck. I was no longer alone. These girls caught up to me and I didn’t like it. So I found some extra gears and powered away with the slight enough gap to keep them out of sight for the final 15 miles of the race. With a minuet to spare, I slid into the finish for 4^th place, moving me to 4^th overall in GC due to a few of the other top gals dropping out of the race. Lucky, I guess.