Well Im returning from the 6 hours of Warrior Creek with my head held low. This is a race I really enjoyed last year and had been looking forward to this year since I registered last fall. However, I went into this week already racing all weekend the previous two weekends in collegiate road and then with rain adding up all week leading up to the race I was already not in a very good mental state to compete in a race.
My goal was still to somehow pull off five laps but honestly I knew it was going to be a race to see how fast I could do four laps around the 13 mile course. I showed up early and got a great spot in the pit area then got all my stuff set up perfectly. I felt much better about my preparation this year as far as what I needed to bring to the race and how it needed to be set up in the pit. I was there alone this year though as marshall missed out on an entry.
Coming off several weekends of road racing I got my trainer out and warmed up like usual when I noticed every one starting to stare. It was at that point I realized I was wearing a cycling cap sitting on a road bike warming up on a trainer in full roadie fashion. That didn’t help in making new friends this year. I made my way to the start line and lined up around mid pack instead of at the tail end like last year.
The run up to the trails on the road had been shortened from last year because of the rain making a mess of the usual entry point. This lead to riders being even more bunched up than usual and concurrently walking and stopping ensued instead of riding. I did talk to some guys from Storm Endurance the bike shop in Sanford, NC that sponsors our team. The trails themselves were a disaster. The rain had turned them into a slick muddy mess that was at times impassible. You couldn’t make use of the berms on the trails because you would slide down them. On some hills you could sit and spin around in the mud trying to make it to the top or on most hills you had to get off and walk as they were to slick to climb, and most of the time to slick to walk up. I ended up going down two or three times and landing in a pile of rocks just to ensure my legs were beat to pieces. Needless to say the first lap was horrible…a disaster that wasn’t fun and I was just trying to get it over with. I rolled across the line in 1:39 which is over a half hour slower than my first lap last year. This year though it was more about survival though. After that I called it a day. Seriously. Looking back now I wish I would have kept slogging along as most people said it got better as the laps went on but at the time it wasn’t fun and I didn’t want to suffer through another meaningless lap when I knew the lap times were going to be to slow to meet my goal. I know its not cool but Iv raced so much already this season and have conference championships next week so I decided it just wasn’t worth it. Honestly I cant even remember all the details all I can remember was a blur of mud and spinning and crawling trying to finish the lap.
It is what it is and it turns out looking at the results many others quit out early as well. There were around 30 people who did only one lap or didn’t do any and I happened to be the second fastest one lapper out there. So that’s something. Almost half the field did only 3 laps this year as compared to only a handful last year. The race was still awesome and the promoters put on a top notch event but Mother Nature just didn’t allow the trails to be what we know them to be: fast and flowy. No excuses here other than I just didn’t want to do anymore laps that day at that time. Luckily I have around 30 more chances to do this race before I hang up my helmet so ill see all of you out there again next year with hopefully sunny skies and dry trails.
Look for a preview of conference championships at Virginia Tech next week…
No comments:
Post a Comment