Not having your arrival at a race a test of your mettle more arduous than the 45 minutes that follows the start makes for a much better feeling at the line even if you are looking at the back of literally every other guy that showed up on a beautiful day at the most popular race of the season when the gun goes off. Heading back up to Gloucester Saturday night after dropping the enormous staircase i’d had to leave idle during the deluge at Stage Fort Park Saturday to stay in the lap of luxury in Anasquam with an incredible wholesome meal waiting and a soft bed with windows to the buoys in the bay that I’d wake to rather than another early alarm clock was just the thing for arriving at the line feeling good.
My thanks go out to the Gurleys for boarding the residents of 407b Main sT. 02155 as though we were honored guests. Their Boyo Benny did them proud the next day mowing down about 9/10 of the field in the mud on his Budd, scrapping back from his own last place start in the 4 race to grab 11th. place. Susi came out as well to parlay her MTB skills into a real respectable mid pack finish in the 3/4 women in her first cross race with regular yoga as her only training, some regularized riding, another couple races and ditching the heavy tiawanese steel of her MASI for something a little more svelte (ahem, BBW frames are well light) she’ll be crushing fast.
Having the housemates, a housemates parents, and a blood relative on a road budd show up to cheer me by the time I rolled out of bed, made some roast beef sandwhiches, rode to the venue, and got off the wait list for a number had me rearing to go off the blocks and the wide road with ride able dirt shoulders let me get ahead of well over half the field at the first turn. Staying on the gas and moving through a lot of other riders requires a level of commitment to the inside line on the turns that can be disconcerting to the rider that you just passed, sometimes they get upset, if I were sorry about that I wouldn’t be that much of a racer. Instead I’m just thrilled that I moved through enough of the pack from the back row to get 18th place and a chance to get a bit more of an advantageous start position in the next race.
Pride in a semi descent finish in the “B” race quickly turns to humility when the pros hit the course. The speeds carried by the guys and girls that make a regimen of training and racing that can pay the bills is something to behold. At the level I’m racing at now pushing it hard for a little while worrying about the way it’ll turn out in the results is only about 1/5 of the time I spend at a race. The rest is goofing off on the bike and enjoying myself and the amount of attention paid to my preparation to the race and the season doesn’t extend much beyond taking a couple of fun bike rides. Taking it to the next level will have to wait another year yet again.
Its still unbelievable to me that I am the only person above the age of 10 that saw fit to take a dip in the ocean after my race. Cold water felt hella good on the worked muscles
