What a weekend! I started out the weekend on Saturday with racing the MFG Series race at Evergreen High School. My husband was working on this one so my mom, son and myself all jumped in the car and drove down to the Lakewood area for this race. It was pouring down rain at my house when I was loading up the bikes. I was pretty excited to get to race in the rain for the first time this year but as we drove south the clouds parted and the sun came out. It was windy so the temps were a little cold but no rain.

The course at Evergreen was great, mostly new compared to the race we did earlier there this season. We used a new section of the park that made for a fun course. It was very fast again, another fast race with not to much technical stuff so I knew I was going to be a bit off on this one. My legs felt heavy from the very beginning and on my warm up lap I knew this one was going to hurt!

Kari Studley was back from racing the USGP races so I knew I was going to have a fast and hard day when I saw her there. But was excited to be racing with her again. We lined up on the start line with only about 6 or 8 of us Cat 1-2 women, a smaller turn out but a strong group of girls for sure!

We started and right away I couldn't get in my pedal. I got a new shim in my new shoes and was having some problems clipping in as the pedal was getting caught on the shim. So I fought that for a bit and then fell into 3rd place on Jenni Gaertner's wheel. I settled in a bit and then made a little move to get around Jenni and tried to stay with Kari, but no luck. She was pulling away from me on the fast sections and there was nothing I could do. So I settled in and once I knew I wasn't going to get Kari I backed down a bit to save something for the legs on Sunday. Like I said my legs were pretty flat on Saturday, I didn't have my normal spunk and top end so it was a long race but overall I managed to hold onto 2nd and have a decent race.

We headed out right after the race to get Holden home to get out and get some candy and do trick or treating. We meet up with some of the cousins and hit the streets. We had a blast, and I am loving all the candy. Not good for me but boy does it taste good!!

Then we got up nice and early (thank goodness for the extra hour of sleep) at 5am to get everything packed up and head down to the firehouse to pick up Chad with the Trailer and head down to Maris Farms in Buckley for the Seattle Series race. When we got there and saw how cool this place was we were very excited. This place is a huge farm with corn mazes and haunted trails and the course was actually outlined by pumpkins. There were animals in the barn for the kids to pet and hold, lots of food. Great family friendly venue. I never saw Holden as he was in the barn holding kittens all day long!!

I got out and did a pre-ride and finally we got some mud!! This really is the first race we have had with good mud so I was excited. I need that technical element of mud and slippery corners to help me. We rode through this peanut butter mud section at the start, super hard on the legs. Then we went into a corn maze and rode through the corn, then we had a run up with a second run up that was ridable for some, then some slippery grass corners. It raced really well, it was very bumpy in the grass, so overall a complete body beating course.

Holden raced first, he was excited to get to ride through the corn maze. He had a blast and finished in 4th. He said he really liked the course.

I was next, this race we had quite a few more girls. We had 2 rows at this one so I was excited. I got a good start, found my pedal right away and got on Kari's wheel right away and we hit the mud. I was able to ride through the mud so I moved into 1st but Kari was a lot stronger on the sections coming out of the mud and caught back up with me and went into first. So I got on her wheel again and stayed there until we hit the run up. I was able to ride the 2nd run up and she ran it so once I got to the top I punched it and got a little gap.

I held it for a bit but she got me again back in the mud. We switched back and forth for another lap and then I managed to get a bigger gap at the top of the run/ride up and I tried to give it everything I had to hold the gap. She brought back a few secs in the mud but I managed to pull ahead a bit every lap on the run up and held on to win by about 25sec. It was a great race, my legs opened up and felt awesome and I really was able to handle my bike through the mud and slippery sections with no crashes and get the gap on the field. I was so excited to get the win, I worked really hard in that race to win and was so proud of myself at the end. What a great race!!

Chad was next and he got a great start like always. And by lap 3 or 4 he was in 3rd place. I was so excited for him, he was having a great race. Unfortunately with a couple laps to go he flatted and fell back a few places but still rode an awesome race and finished 6th. I was so happy for him!

So overall a great weekend for the Berg family!! And it was so nice having the trailer there on Sunday to be able to change inside to get out of the muddy clothes. We headed back down south next weekend to race at Sprinker Park. I like that course a lot also and rain is in the forecast!!

Kristi