This is kinda what the last 15 miles felt like...
Some times you just don't have it. for what ever reason and I have been finding all of them, you just aren't the rock start you thought you could be.
This weekend I raced at the Bear Mt. road race. 98 miles of a heavy course. one long (2-3 miles) climb. small ring but not to steep. and some other rollers. small ring on one inparticular.
the race played out well for me too. or so i thought. after a normal nervous start where someone misjudged a turn, crashed on my inside and hit my bike. and another squirrely guy with some fierce kick back when he stood up. After that it was pretty steady until miles 56-70 where mr Kodak guy and Dave Frattini through down. dropping half the field. on the second mach 1 trip up the climb I was to far back coming around people getting dropped. by the top of the climb I was feeling the effort. trying to recover now the 6th time up the climb which was pretty chill I thought about trying my hand attacking again (i went a few times around mile 60). but figured I should play it cool the race was hard enough. at the top the big boys attacked again. 10 of us responded but only 2 made it. One of them being my team mate Eric P. yes that same one that caused all the pain in GA. he is for real!!
any way the rest of us started to go and after about 45 seconds in the red zone cracked bad! an even smaller group formed about 30 guys that would get even smaller in the last 20 miles.
It was tough seeing the move that I have trained for go up the road and not having "it" in the legs. I cracked really bad and there was no coming out of it. maybe being at the back having to closing gaps the lap before was the reason, maybe I ate something bad, or the restless night of sleep. maybe there was a full moon... uhhh.... somewhere? There was really nothing. Everything went well even the steady increasing pace of the race played out well for me.
I didn't do that bad I guess. my group was 15th- 27th and 5 guys had slipped away from us in the closing km. not bad with only 40 finishing all together out of 100. but still I work hard and I expect allot from my self. at least more than I had Sunday. Its important to remember, myself and everyone I guess, that this sport. All sports when competing at a high level are very, very demanding. And some times its just not your day. The other thing I have learned after many years of competing in many sports is that if you work hard, stay smart, stay motivated, your day will come. It might take awhile but it will come.
Next weekend I’m off to another one. I have done well there before so I’ll look to post a better, more exciting entry next week. one with so good pictures!
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