47 degrees is what the temperature gauge of my 4Runner read as I arrived at the race. It had already been a long morning as I really didn’t feel like getting out of bed at 5:30am, now I was at the race and it was cold. I thought about turning around or possibly just parking somewhere else and taking a nap in the car, but instead I walked over to registration and paid the entry fee, after all I was here to race. I was certainly not as excited about it as last week, but mostly I was still exhausted from that race last weekend. I didn’t even warm up, I just made my way to the starting line and decided I would follow the pack into the trails and warm up on the fly. It was interesting that this was the first time I have ever went into the single track so far behind, of the 20 guys in this race I must have been in near last. It actually took some effort to not get carried away passing guys on the first climb, not that I really felt that good it’s just that they were going so slow, especially for the first lap. The first half of the race was worse than any other race I have ever done; I was physically tired and mentally fried. This is a bad combination, nearly every 5 minutes I was thinking I would just call it a day after this lap and throw everything in the car and drive home. I never did of course, but I really wanted to… For lap 1 I wore all the clothes I had with me, I knew they would be too hot for the race, but it was just too cold standing at the starting line to take them off, so I stopped for a few minutes after the first lap and shed the extra layers. For the second lap I then cold, but by lap 3 it finally warmed up to be a nice day. I really thought I must have been in last place by now as my performance seemed terrible, besides the mental issues I felt terrible on the bike, I had no power, and was navigating the trails like I had all the skills of a beginner. Speaking of first times, I did have my new Top Fuel 9.8 under me. Extremely nice ride, the sizing felt good, and I was even using the lockouts on the climb.
Click Here to see my race data at Garmin ConnectLap 4 is when the race took a turn for the better, this is when all the Sport and Expert riders started. The experts were already gone, but the Sport guys were just starting so I waited for most of them to get into the trails before I rounded the turn back in. At first it was nice to have people to follow and chat with, but I quickly realized they were slowing me down, so I had to start passing. Most of the guys I was passing were in the 40+ Sport category, and every time I passed a guy there was a new rabbit just ahead, this made the last two laps more fun and I rode them much faster. Where the energy came from I really don’t know, I still didn’t feel powerful, but at least I was riding at a reasonable pace.
It took forever for the results to be posted, but when they finally were I noticed that my last lap was missing… I talked to the judges and evidently it was cleanly missed, but they were gracious enough to give me a 5th lap time based on my 4th lap, and when I checked my Garmin with my lap times that was really close to what I actually did. So instead of being in 16th place I ended up 8th, which really seems a lot better than how I felt I rode.
So that was it for training race #2, now I definitely need to start resting and getting mentally prepared for the 12 hours of Branched Oak race next weekend.
First lap was completed in less than 30min and already I could see the 3 hours going by rather quickly. I quickly realized there was no strategy for this race other than go as hard as possible until it's over. On the second lap I was glad I decided to go with the full suspension bike as my lower back was sore already. That pain was irrelevant compared to how my legs were feeling. I forgot about my love-hate relationship with Swanson; I love the trails, fast, lots of twists, and steep rollers, very smooth, just a great place to ride, but I hate the homefield advantage everyone in Omaha has, I have never done well at Swanson and I always decide the homefield advantage is the biggest reason, midway through the second lap I realized I was using the brakes too much, being too timid around unknown corners, and having to power out of the turn to keep speed -it was rapidly breaking me down!
In case I didn't mention it; I'm riding my 2000 Trek Fuel, as the guys at the shop didn't want me to break in the new Top Fuel 9.8 in a race, (which is very smart, race conditions are too extreme for break in and if something goes wrong I could potentially damage something really expensive on the bike).
