REGISTERED: My First Fat Tire Bike Race

January had 2 of my biggest weeks ever on my trainer (see HERE and HERE). Part of that was because 3 weeks ago, my brother-in-law Matt sent me this message:

That text came mid-week during my first big bike trainer week of the month, and it was that conversation that spurred my last 2 workouts that week to be so big.

Well, he found a bike for me to ride, so I signed up last night.

I'm doing the middle distance as I'm afraid the longest (that Matt's doing) is too much for me without having ever been on a fat tire bike before, and the shortest is considered a "recreational ride" (and I still want to "race"). So it will be a 20K race (or about 12.5 miles) around and across some of the chain of lakes in Minneapolis.

Here's the start where we do a counter-clockwise lap around Bde Maka Ska and then bike on top of the frozen channel to Lake of the Isles. Then we get to do some fun zig-zags around the islands before heading over to Cedar Lake:

Blue dot is the start.

The middle of the race seems less interesting as we just head north under I394 and Hwy 55. And then we loop all over the damn place around the finish: first all around Wirth Lake, and then on some of the single track in Theo Wirth:

Blue dot is the finish. But don't ask me how it fits into all the lines around there!

My 3 goals are to not fall (I don't want to hurt myself), not freeze anything off, and to push myself to a hard finish. I don't know if I'll know how to pace myself on a fat bike, but here's to hoping!!!

I don't often do things "for the first time" anymore, so this should be interesting!