AUBURN – After 11 practice runs, Dara Reimers is warmed up and ready to take her dough on the road.

She’ll face two challengers in San Francisco on Sunday, all competing for one spot on the U.S. team going to the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie – the Olympics of Baking.

Twelve countries compete every three years; the U.S. is the reigning champ.

Reimers is planning an elaborate bread sculpture with flowers, trees, thunderbolts, snowflakes and dew-drop-shaped pieces representing the seasons, all held together with piping-hot sweetness.

“It’s 300-degree sugar and I’ve got the burns to prove it,” she said, waving a bandaged hand.

Reimers, 47, is an artisan baker who moved to Maine four years ago from Vancouver, British Columbia, after a friend told her Portland was a great place. She said she found that city too expensive and was drawn here by the economic development in Lewiston-Auburn.

She wanted to open a bakery but hasn’t yet.

By day, she’s an accountant.

She’s also a member of the Bread Bakers Guild of America. It was her enrollment in a guild class last year that got her into the competition.

When she saw the “East Prep Class” advertised at the Hyde Park Culinary Institute of America, “I was just going to work on my croissant technique, meet some bakers, goof off, see my sister,” Reimers said.

Turned out the “prep” was for the regionals for the U.S. team. She began experimenting with special-colored dough and got hooked. She loved the nurturing and thought that goes into it.

Reimers entered regionals last October in Rhode Island, in artistic design. She and her two competitors were the only three people in the country to enter that category at any of the regionals; they all won a spot at the finals.

On Sunday, each baker will have eight hours to make new creations from scratch.

They’ll share an oven and be watched over by five judges and campers from Camp Bread.

“Our cooperation and professionalism will be part of the judging,” she said. “I expect it to be quite intense. It’s going to take a lot of focus.”

She’s been practicing with a coach from Johnson & Wales University to get ready. Reimers leaves for San Francisco on Wednesday, X-Acto knife, pizza cutter, cookie cutters, flours, spices for colors, gloves and other tools in tow.

While Reimers is competing in the artisan bread category, others will be competing in two other categories: viennoiserie and baguette, and specialty breads. The winners of each category will go to the Olympics next March and April in Paris.

“It’s the opportunity of a lifetime. It’d be very exciting to go to France,” Reimers said. If she makes it, “I think the team practices once a month, probably in San Francisco, and I’ll also practice with my coach again every other weekend. I’ll try to have my life in there somewhere.”