Race report

Saturday was my first race of the year.  My mom made the trip down to St. George to watch me, so I felt like I needed to make a good showing to make her proud.  Well, that’s not completely true, but I need something to explain my 4th place finish.  See, last year I was over 10 minutes slower and finished 11th on the same course.  I don’t think I did anything different this winter to prepare.

At the start of the race I found myself at the front of the pack.  I don’t know how this happened, and it certainly wasn’t deliberate.  Rich (who I hear has been training all winter) was sitting on my wheel and I eventually let him pass with the hope of following him until the end of the race when I would blow past him just before the finish line.  That’s how I saw it happening in my head.  Apparently Rich had a different idea, by the end of the first lap he had a 15 second lead on me.  His teammate Brad (number 15 in the photo above) passed me at the start of the second lap and I spent that entire lap trying unsuccessfully to stick with them. 

By the start of the third lap I was starting to realize I wouldn’t be catching Rich and Brad.  I just wish I had known there was a guy (Brian) behind me ready to pass.  He went by at the bottom of the first climb and again I spent the entire lap watching him widen the gap between us.  It was depressing, but I did have fun passing all the sport riders on the final descent.  I actually felt fast on the downhill, which doesn’t happen very often. 

So the upshot is that I need to improve my stamina.  I’ve got to maintain my race pace for the whole race, not just the first lap and a half.  Either that or throw some thumbtacks on the trail in front of Rich and Brad. 

I’ve got a few ideas for increasing my stamina.  Naturally, none of them involve training, which is not a hooptedoodly thing to do.  Here's what I've come up with:

1-Bowl more.  Perhaps sticking around for a fourth game after league night will help. 
2-Do more yoga.  I still haven’t used up the 5-pass card Mags gave me for Christmas.
3-Take up surfing.  Hmmm, that’s not a bad idea.