At My Age, I'm Just Happy That I Can Move the Day After.

I made the trek out to Athens, GA on sunday for the second race of the Georgia Mountian bike series. Normally i wouldn't travel to that god forsaken part of the country since it the home of the University(sic) of Georgia. I am thankful for the recirculate button on my AC in the car so i didn't have to smell the stench that rises up from that place. The race was about 20 minutes south of town at the Heritage Park. It would have been a really fun course in the dry, but with the rain and the large number of roots, it wasn't much fun. I realized after slipping and sliding over many, many, many roots, hitting a few trees, and going ass over elbows into a creek embankment,(in the first half lap) that i had the wrong tires, too much pressure and not enough skill to make it around this course without killing myself. I had serious thoughts about bailing, but i finished the first lap and stuck it out for the next two. I let a bunch of air out of my tires and the trail started to dry out a little as the ride (notice i'm not calling it a race since i was soooo far back) wore on so it started to get better. I finished 13 out of 18 (14 finishers, i think i loaned my CO2 can to the guy that finished behind me...this close to DFL)
I've realized that i need to just focus on my skills and do whatever it takes to make me more comfortable. If that means running a heavy front tire with a huge footprint, so be it. I will probably turn faster laps with it rather than a 300 gram lighter tire. I'm afraid it may be too late in life to sharpen the skills....we'll see. I've been mountain biking a lot more and i still hope that i can finish the mtn. 100 in 9 hours or so this year.

BTW: no serious wounds, a few scrapes, lumps and bruises. nothing that my childrens tylenol won't fix.