Neshimany meant 2 hours and 27 minutes for me… That’s how long it took me today but that did get me a second place finish and a silver so our young boy could pose with a medal again.
Not necessarily that hard when you only have three people in your class but my goal was to finish and eventually I’ll increase my speed. (Probably about the same time I loose all that extra bagage that "allows" me to race in that class with only three people!) I was somewhat curious if I’d be able to keep pace with the woman who usually gets first but I got to see that I couldn’t. She was gone in the first mile and beat me by 27 minutes. To truly put my time in perspective, hubby did the same distance in an hour and 24 minutes and the fastest sport woman came in at an hour and 37 minutes. So I’m just a little off the pace!
But I suppose I enjoyed doing the longer distance of sport, somewhere around 14 some miles. I never really got in a groove though. Neshimany isn’t the kind of place I could keep speed, between the built up logs and all the other little things here and there. My log nemesis continues and there were two in the course that I just couldn’t do, mental yes but I had attempted them a handful of times riding in the week before with no success and race day wasn’t going to be my next attempts.
The second part of each lap included racers passing. The first lap finished with some of the sport racers (including hubby) passing me as they were finishing their second lap going to the finish. I kept thinking, wouldn’t it be nice if I only had to ride half the time to cover the same distance like these guys. But that's not my speed. Then I realized that the elite and expert races would be starting soon and some would catch me before I finished my second and final lap, which they did. It was a little disappointing having racer’s catching me in the last part of both laps since it’s actually a really fun part of the course that I could usually keep some speed but instead I was pulling over, a lot! So I didn’t end this race physically fatigued. I'd call the 'event' a combination of a race, ride and trail spectating all wrapped into one.
Overall an enjoyable day, I always love seeing everyone that we tend to only see on race days. Plus, it was our team’s event and the first event that I had spent some time working on the trails, marking the trails the day before and being there to “help” on race day. It added a little something to the event for me.
Hubby finished first and had another great race, aka. winner. And I finished the day by enjoying a little bit of coconut sinfulness. (Cocount goodness and 120 calories... I went for it)
Next up..Saturday’s 12 hour Cranky Monkey. And I'm really looking forward to it. No need for a race pace in this event. My plan -push my slow steady riding to its limits and maybe achieve one of my goals for the year.
3 comments:
don't be too hard on yourself there kiddo.
At the end of the day, this is all beer league softball. In 2 years, no one is going to remember who won what, but who was there,and who was a gamer. Who had fun, and who gave back to the sport. those are things that people are remembered for.
cycling, for me at least has always been a game of small incremental improvements. The joy of riding, the challenge to improve, that keeps me coming back.
we all have good days and bad days, and we all want to win, but hell from reading your blog you've pulled down more MASS podiums that I have sniffed. That is very good to you.
keep on rocking, you're doing great.
there are no losers in beer league, just someone who has to buy the next round...
good luck at Cranky Monkey. It's a really good event.
respect
m
Come ride logs with the girls at Belmont! You'll get your groove on after we're done with you. I'll bring Kaos along to cheer!
Thanks Marc - I don't take it too serious, but this is the place I'll vent my frustration of it!
That Social D song has been played in route to every race this year! It do beleive it's become our theme (or joke) for this year!
Anne - You got it, lets see if you can crack this mental block called my head!! Or I'll just spend some quality time with Kaos, it's been a while!!
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