In my last blog I noted that I was over trained. Well, that’s still the case, but I’m trending
up. I knew going into the race that I
wasn’t going to be throwing down. I may
not be able to be competitive in races, but I’m more than capable of completing
races. I went into the race with a
mindset that I was going to have fun and not bury myself deeper into the realm
of over trained land, a dark hole of misery!!!
I started the race with my head down and let the pack pull away. No point in burning matches that early, and
if I did my day would have been pretty painful.
Instead I held back on the first big climb, and stayed conservative on
all the climbs during the day. There was
one place I could be competitive though, and that was on the descents. As far as an enduro racing goes, I’m not
great at the descents like all the crazy downhillers, but in the endurance
arena I’m getting pretty fast. I give
credit to racing enduro races this year, and riding with my uber-fast teammates
who excel when the trail turns down and are pretty damn solid at climbing as
well. Seriously, I have an awesome set
of guys and gals who are seriously fast riders, seriously humble about it, and
are seriously great people to be around… no, seriously! Go PPR!
Anyhow, back to my race. I found
myself passing people on the descents left and right. I’d of course get out of their way on the up
hills where I tortoised my way up to another descent. At the end of the day, I may have been passed
a lot, but I had a smile on my face. I came
in around 4:40. Not a great time, but
still solid considering. Oh, and this
was the first time doing the Firecracker 50 without getting a flat tire, and I’ve
done it five times! Double bonus!
My plan now is to recover in July, and come back strong in
August to finish my season. I have the
Telluride 100 scheduled for mid-July.
I’m fairly certain I’m going to be dropping that race for this year. Just don’t think I can do that race and still
come back strong after it. I still plan
on doing the Keystone Enduro, and may pick up the Winter Park Enduro for the
weekend I was going to do the Telluride 100.
Endurance racing is about overcoming adversity. This is just another bump along the way I
need to overcome, and I will be stronger when I come out on the other
side. Anyway, not like my team is going
to drop me. Another reason it’s good to
be team manager ;). Happy trails!
