Within five minutes of my warm up I knew it was going to be a long day. My legs just didn't feel 100%. This was probably because a forty five minute easy day I had the previous Tuesday turned into an hour and half with the first fifteen minutes pushing harder than what I should have uphill to catch up with my friend. It could of also been my Wednesday tempo ride being in the mid 70% of my max HR when it should have been in the lower 70%. Or maybe I was just having an off day. Whatever the case, I just wasn't feeling it. The start of the race was a quick hole shot. I was the fifth to the singletrack, and breathing much harder than what I should have been breathing at my level of cardio. I managed to make quick work of the four racers ahead of me and was sitting in first mid first lap. Within minutes Jason Hanson of Bandwagon Racing, who was one the unfortunate guys that flatted out at the Voodoo Fire ahead of me, was on my tail. Rather than beat on each other we decided to spend a lap taking it a little easier since we had a decent gap. Jason apparently was feeling strong that day (or I was just feeling that weak) because he was pulling away from me a little about two thirds into the lap. Out of the blue another racer passed by me. When he caught up to Jason the race was on for the two of them and they were off. Jason was able to hold him off and ended up winning by two minutes. Awesome to see since he had such bad luck two weeks prior. For me the race turned grim. By lap three of the six laps my legs were really feeling it. One by one I watched racers pass me. I was helpless to attack. I ended up 11th in 30-39 and 45th overall. Not at all what I had hoped for, nor was it a display of what I'm capable of. As bad as the day was, I still managed to beat my previous time by almost twenty five minutes. I guess I can't expect every race to go great, but I'm still pretty disappointed in myself. All I can do now is analyze what might of caused this and not make the same mistakes in the future. Battle the Bear is in two weeks which is my home stomping grounds since I've used Bear Creek Lake for endurance training several times. Hopefully I can redeem myself there. Heres' the stats:
Pics from the race:
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