Wht a blast this weekend was. Yesterday was a very hard day. When I woke up this morning, instantly I could feel that my legs were a little stiff and sore. I knew that the race should be very interesting.
When I got to the race site I went and registered, then headed up for my mandatory run. As soon as I started down the hill, I knew that my race run was going to be difficult. My legs were pretty tight, and not comfortable at all. My grip strenght was also not its normal self, so hanging on to the bars was a challenge. I remembered the upper section pretty well, but messed up the first road crossing, and almost t-boned a stump. I hiked back up a ways and tried that road crossing again, and messed up again! The third time was the charm, and I had to remember that during my race run I needed to stay pretty far left.
The bottom two sections flew by pretty quickly, and by the bottom I was pretty tuckered. I had originally thought that I was going to do two preruns, but I quickly changed that plan.
I then started the waiting. I had close to two hours to wait before my class started racing. Oh well.
Just as I was about to make my way to the top, Su eand Yoshi showed up. I talked with her for a little bit, then jumped in the shuttle, and made my way to the top.
There I had to wait some more, but when time came to line up, the anxiousness set in. I wasn’t nervous, but I was biting at the Bullit. I just wanted to get out there and go.
Soon enough, it was my turn. I lined up and got my right foot set on the pedal. Then I waited. The 10 seconds to go came, then I waited. The countdown started 3…2…1…go! Down the ramp, and into the course. I flowed the first few corners really well. The course had settled in nicely, and the berms were pretty sweet.
I railed the corners, pedalling out of the last half. Lefts and rights just came to me, as if I knew the course like the back of my hand (which I don’t). Over a couple jumps, through some more corners. I had one slight bobble over one jump, but recovered quite quickly. I remembered all the lines I wanted to get, and the tricky corners. I dropped down into the ravine, and as I was cresting the other side I kept thinking about the upcoming road crossing that I messed up earlier in the day.
When it appeared, all I could think was keep left. And I did. Pain was starting to set in. My legs were on fire, my feet were cramping up, I was breathing heavily, and my forearms were getting very, very tight. I knew to keep pushing though because the end would be coming up very quickly. Throught the second section I manualled the dips, and sucked up the humps, and when I could snuck in a couple pedal strokes.
I slowed for the second crossing, and in some far off place I could hear Sue cheering for me. I sprinted across the road, and dropped back into the trail. The pain was getting intense, and all I could concentrate on was the finish line. From the second road crossing it was mostly a straight shot to the line. Except for one corner with a log drop at the apex. Right on cue I slammed on the brakes, lifted and tuend the bike, and started pedalling. I had made it through the last corner, and it was only a short sprint to the finish line.
Once across I just needed to spin along the fire road to work out the lactic acid, but I had to stop to give up my plate first. I took off my helmet, and spun away from the finish line. I was happy with my race. No crashes or wipeouts on my race run. That was a good thing. I probably could have gone a little faster on the first section, but then I would have been more tired near the end of the race. Oh well.
I wanted to stick around to get my results, but they were having problems. They did the draw prizes (I won a t Shirt), then announced results would be ready in about a half hour. I didn’t want to wait around any more, so I took off. I know I didn’t win, but I am happy with my result. As of this writing, results aren’t posted yet, but I have my fingers crossed that I placed mid pack in the intermediate men.
Another crazy fun DH weekend. No crashes, nothing broken.
