Monday, April 16, 2007

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.

3 comments:

joe york said...

Sam you have mad skills just put the hammer down and use the force. Good job anyway!!

gwadzilla said...

children's tylenol?

gwadzilla said...

yes
wet roots...

not sure if anyone enjoys wet roots
wet off camber roots

some people are definitely more comfortable than others on this stuff

I hate crashing

the wet roots and smell fear