In my mind this race started the night before.
I was laying miserable in my bed trying to stay
as close as possible to the bathroom for two
reasons. (Enter your own reasons here.) Something
that I had ate in the past 10 hours was not
agreeing with my body, my stomach was retaliating
as it hated me for those hours.
Race day I felt better. The port a jon was only
visited twice and signing up for the race it
felt completely doable. I pre road the course
and decided to rock the mtn bike. Mainly due
to my back and stomach concerns. I knew I would
be faster on the CX bike but at that point my
comfort was more important. During pre ride
there was a slight pit stop when you enter this
wooded section. The stomach was pissed and needed
to show it. Once everything was up and out I
felt better. I had already paid and didn’t
want to loose $15. At that moment my mind went
from race mode to survival. The course was suited
towards my weaknesses so I would treat it as
a faster training ride.
Start of the race there was
the normal how slow am I smack talk. It was
cold and many of us mentally weren’t there.
The course itself had limited flat sections
- even the flat sections required hard pedaling
to keep momentum, and the long hill to the barriers
sucked every one of my 4 (or was it 5) laps.
Once into the end of the 1st lap I settled into
a nice constant effort. Most the girls were
pulling away but I was putting some effort to
push the pedals around. There was one girl behind
me and I felt as long as I kept her off my tail
I had a successful day. 3rd lap my stomach attacked
again. I stood for about 4-5 minutes hoping
last place would pass so I could slowly walk
my quizy legs off the course. She didn’t.
Finally convincing myself to get back on the
bike I finished the race. Even had enough in
it to sprint a CX4 guy for the line. (I won.)
In the end I’m glad
I raced, but it sucks that I did so badly. Next
week I’ll be starting up the short track
series and won’t see how I faired when
I was in healthy shape. The fall series is looming
in my future and I’m actually looking
forward to it…
Thanks to the PHOTOGRAPHERS
that were out there for the photos!
WWCX
#3
