time to come clean

it's not like i forgot to post a synopsis of my race sunday. oh, no. i didn't forget. i couldn't. i am still pretty mad about it, but up until now, i was mad enough to pretend it didn't happen.

why? what makes it so important that it's such a sore subject? because i care.

i have had a great winter of training. i got torpedoed by pneumonia a month ago, and i've been struggling to get my level of fitness back with the bad weather. i had decided that the muddy conditions that were sure to be present sunday were no place to take my sorry butt. but my ego got the best of me and i said, what the hell, i'm racing.

first off let me say that i am still a rookie. i went pretty unprepared. we had the trivia night until late on saturday, and i just plain forgot gu and food and i didn't prep the old homegrown very well. actually, the old girl was performing very well. except...

i started hard because i didn't want to dice with guys in the mud. i wanted to get out there and pound my way through until i could get into a groove. dave breslin and i were at the front, with chris ploch behind us. we were going ok, i thought, until dave fell and chris passed me. i was hurtin'. i kept mashing the pedals through all that slow mud, but i got passed again by an out of town guy, then two drj guys. i was still in 5th and feeling pretty good about it. i wasn't happy, but i thought i could maintain the pace and, with it being a long race, i thought i could make up ground. i could still see 3rd and 4th right in front of me.

then i flatted. yes, a flat. i didn't put on the A team tires, i left the B team tires on that i had been on all winter. they were beat up, tears here and there, and i just didn't do it. add to the fact that i probably hit stuff that i shouldn't have hit because i was tired, and there you go.

i sat there for a minute, marveling at the fact that, even though i felt pretty damn bad, i was still going ok, and my own rookie behavior took me out. no one to blame but me. no one to blame but my muddy, tired, broken down bike riding self.

sigh.

so i cussed and spit and kicked for a little while, then rode my bent crossmax wheel with the nearly bald tire on a flat about 2 miles on the paved path back to the start finish area and straight to the car.

there. i came clean. i'm a rookie. an angry 41 year old expert rookie. all the more reason to win one of these mountain bike races this year. the best reason i can think of.