Good News and Bad News

The good news about Yankee is that I've finally ridden it. We headed out on the trail at about noon yesterday. The weather was perfect for riding—sunny and mid-60s and judging from the parking lot when we pulled in, lots of other people felt the same way. Even though there were quite a few people out on the trail, everyone was really nice. Now it may be different on race day, but everyone just greeted me, passed me when they could get around me and wished me a nice day when they did. Everyone I apologized to for being slow and for clogging up the trail told me not to worry about it. They seemed to all just want me to do my own thing and they would figure out how to pass me when they could. That makes me feel good because one of my fears is being in the way on race day.

Another thing I was worried about was if the trail would be too difficult (scary) for me. For the most part, though, I was able to ride everything except a few of the uphills. Downhills are what I usually walk because I'm scared and I didn't do that at all. So, either Yankee wasn't as bad as I was anticipating or I really am starting to grow that pair I've been wanting for so long. I did crash once, but I didn't hurt myself too badly, and I got back up and started riding again. The funny thing is, the part where I crashed wasn't even a part I was worried about. I just hit a big rock I didn't see until the last minute and the next thing I knew I was on the ground.

Here's the only bad news for the day. Physically, the trail kicked my butt. I wasn't riding anywhere near race pace and I was still completely exhausted and dogging it the last couple of miles. The race course is about 11 miles and that's just way longer than the trails I'm used to riding. I'm going to try to get out there at least one more time before the race, but I think my goals on race day truly will be just to finish and not to hurt myself too badly. I think anything else would be too ambitious.