The hard way.

I have always been one to do things the hard way. That might be why I love cycling so much, it is a challenge. Yesterday was a perfect example of me doing things the hard way. Although I will point out that a lot of yesterdays "challenges" were not my doing, just mine to deal with.

I have decided to chase the TBRA (TN Bike Racing Association) mountain bike series. I hadn't planned on it but after looking at the series standings, I currently have the lead. If I do a few more races I should be able to win the jersey. They are fun courses and places that I haven't gotten to race in a few years. And it will be good training. The fields are usually fairly small so I can use the races to experiment with both bike and body to dial in some things before cross season starts.

Star and I got up at the butt crack of dawn (5am) yesterday to drive to Oak Ridge TN for a series race. I've ridden the trails at Haw Ridge Park before but it's been a few years. Racing without a pre-ride is not ideal but it was just a training race anyway so I was not too concerned. The boss man (Coach Mark) had given me strict instructions to ride the race as a tempo ride, no harder. Okay, that is easier said than done but I was determined to do it. We arrived at Haw Ridge at 7:45am for a 9am start. Hmmm, where is the race director?? Don't you think that MAYBE registration would be set up an hour and 15 minutes before the start. Nope. However, that was not the most disturbing part of the day. We arrived in need of a restroom only to be told that there wasn't one. Really!!!??? Okay, it is race morning, there are things that need to happen. I love Mother Nature but there are just some times that I do not want to know her so well. That is all I am going to say about that. We eventually were told that there was a city port-o-let about a half mile from registration (after we had already visited the woods). One. A half mile away. Wow. This does not bode well for the rest of the day....

After the restroom "incident" we waited in line for registration for a while (during what is normally my warm-up time) and as soon as they had everyone registered they were ready to start us. It is a good thing I am just riding tempo today.... No warm up, no pre-ride, okay GO. Ha!!! We headed off and I took the lead at a (mostly) tempo pace. I slowly rode away from the rest of the field, all the while trying not to get lost. The trail was marked as well as I expected after experiencing the rest of the morning's events. Had I been going race pace I would have blown past a number of the turns. Near the end of the first of two laps I came to a steep rocky descent and there was a volunteer yelling something at me. I slowed to try and hear his urgent message. I promptly crashed and tore up my knee. Apparently he was telling me to be careful; if I had been paying attention to the trail instead of him I'd have been fine. I jumped back on the bike, yelled at myself for being a dumbass and kept going. About a half mile later I started to feel the back end of my bike slide around. Oh NO!!!! Flat tire. I continued to roll on through the feed zone/start finish area. A bit farther down I stopped and messed with the tire until I got it (mostly) holding air. Amanda, who was riding strongly in second place passed me as I was messing with it. Crap. I hate mechanicals. I was happy to see her doing well though. I eventually got rolling again (Thanks Troy) and the chase began (at tempo of course...). I caught Amanda and slowly distanced myself from her again. The remainder of lap two was cautious and definitely tempo. I was riding gingerly to keep upright and aired up. I rode flawlessly down the area where I crashed on lap one. I took the win, albeit not one of my better performances. Amanda rode strong for second, Star was 5th and Emily was 6th. Both Emily and Star got lost and ended up riding a longer race than us. They were not the only ones. About 1 in 3 of the riders I talked to had a similar story.

We waited 2.5 hours for results and awards.

Star and I laughed about our adventure all the way home.

Thanks for reading...