I quickly learned that today was a national championship series race when out of a HUGE crowd the series leaders got the call up at the race start. I thought to myself, holy crap what did I get myself into. No worries, right, the plan is to just hold back and have a good time, right? I tried. But then the urge to try and move to the front overcame me. What stopped that from happening was my complete lack of motivation after 10 minutes at a heart rate of 170. So I slid back and started to enjoy the ride.
On the second lap I started to feel really good. Like that rare feeling of felling good. like i might just do well and started going really fast. on the decent I went to fast and ended up puncturing my rear tire on a sharp rock. That took the wind out of my sails. I was still hopeful that I could be on my way fast enough to regain my conquest to devour competitors. So when I didn’t use my CO2 correctly and had to pump up the tire with a tiny pump my dreams of doing well fell to the wayside. So After about ten minutes I was on my way but definitely going at a lack luster pace.
The third lap was important tome because last year I feel apart on it. I went into it tentatively wondering if I would fall apart. But instead I felt great again and almost had gained back all the spots I had lost due to the flat. I was hauling ass when all of a sudden … psssst pssst pssssst. the sound of Stans No Tubes sealant escaping out a big hole in my sidewall. I had hit another sharp rock. Thoroughly disgusted I set out to slowly fix the flat. Thankfully I was able to pick up another tube from my friend in the pit area.
I had a tough time finishing the third lap. I just wanted to quit. When I pulled into the pits to let my friend know he handed me a another tube. Shoot … might as well keep going. So I started out on my final lap not fully in love with the idea of riding the entire thing. Then the closer I got to the end the more I realized I might make the 9:45 cut off for the belt buckle. As I progressed it felt like it was going to be imposable. I went to some dark places and dug deep. These place were dark and scary. I had to put up with a lot of pain. But I pulled it out and came in with mere minutes to spare. i won a belt buckle. As of this writing I don’t know my place. I don’t think it was even top ten. But the bottom line is that it was fun, challenging, and I got the buckle.
Boneshakerbike 
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