MTB Short-Track #3

All portents were bad.

I left the house late. Traffic was stalled. I signed in with a mere 10 mins to go on the clock. However, the beginners were still going so I relaxed a little. I decided to go warm up a little, but kept the starting area within view.

Brrrrr. Brrrrr. Rrrrrr go my tires. Hm. Still no one lining up at the start... must be running a little late today. Caught a break there.

5 after. Still no one at the start. A little weird... better go in for a look. I happen to overhear the announcer mention that the starting line is "over there". Where? What?? Uh oh. I spy a cluster of healmets over BEHIND a building by the regular starting area.

As I speed around the corner I see a group of riders racing off in a cloud of dust. I ask one of the guys at the back "Who just went?"

"Under 40. Go go!"

So off I went in a cloud of curses. (Not really a cloud, just a single curt exclamation.) I caught up with the back fairly quickly and managed to work my way up to the middle before I faded. I must have spent my meager reserves on that first lap. Foo.

This time around the organizers had us climbing as many of those short, steep MX jumps as possible. By the last lap I was just CRAWLING up them. Ha!

Good news? I think I finished on the same lap as the leader. I hope I managed to save myself from teh suck.

The Fire XC Pros are working well.

I don't know how pro Shannon Skerrit does it. It's like he's in his own race-- I see him go by and it seems like 5 minutes later the rest of the pack comes by. How do people do that? I was just slobbering and grimacing and foaming during my race and he just zooms by like he's on a motorcycle... AND SMILING!