Fort Custer Stampede

After a super disappointing day at Mud Sweat and Beers in Traverse City I drove home Saturday night tired, with a headache, and a very sore throat and cough.  I went round and round in my head about whether I should race the next day at Fort Custer.  I didn't want to make the effort to get there just to not be able to breathe again...but I LOVE "the fort".  I decided to get to bed really early and see how I felt in the morning.
I woke up feeling pretty good and the cough was still there but mild.  I decided to head down to the race.  I would start and if I could breathe I would finish.  If I felt like I did the day before I would just DNF. I wasn't going to stress my body just to slowly ride my way around the course twice.
I warmed up a bit and headed for the start line.  We had a nice Women's field of 7. We took off and I headed for the front.  I left the field behind pretty quickly much to my surprise...and then I clipped a tree and they caught right back up. I stayed in the lead for a long time and then was passed on a climb (big surprise).  I reeled her back in on the flat flowy single track.  She took a bad line in front of me and we actually collided!  Oops.  After this, I was really wishing I hadn't raced the day before.  I had a nice first lap but by the second I was really tiring.  I was able to stay in second place until the last minute of the race....the race finished on a climb and I was passed right at the end leaving me in 3rd place.  I'm still happy with how I rode and there were no breathing problems to be had..??  It was a little bit warmer than the day before so maybe that helped.