I admit to being very reluctant to race this year. For a variety of reasons: We're having financial hardships, can't afford to get hurt again, much turmoil at home, and plain old fear of getting hurt again. But I knew that I had to start racing sometime, and the weather was just too good to turn down the opportunity to get started off-road.
Huge crowd today. More than 200 people showed, which is some kind of local record for this decade. I had a great start, and hung in 4th place until the last couple of miles when I just didn't have the gas to hold off another rider. So 5th place it was. 30+ miles and 2+ hours. Wasn't really prepared for that, but it was vindication for suffering a long, cold winter with a broken leg.
That 5th place envelope did not come from training and good fitness. It came from 35 years of riding and racing bikes. I will have to get some sort of regular training going (or at least regular riding!) or I will find out pretty quickly that residual fitness and muscle memory can only take a guy so far.
Onward and upward.
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