Interesting Choice

This Sunday is my second mountain bike race. It's at Fort Custer. I'm actually really excited for it, and have been studying the times from last year for my age group and doing some math (yes, math) to figure out what kind of a time would be feasible. For the last race, I just wanted to survive and finish without hurting myself. Those two things are obviously still important, but now that I have one race under my belt I'm feeling a little more confident about goal setting. And though I had an idea of what I thought my finishing time would be for that first race, it wasn't really a goal, it was more of a prediction, and it left a lot of room for error and general slowness.

This course is about 2.5 miles shorter than the course for the last race. It's also supposed to be an easier, faster trail. The hills are significantly smaller and there's not that whole sand issue. That being said, I should feel at the same disadvantage, if not more of one, as I did before the last race. That's because:

• I haven't pre-ridden the course. I have ridden parts of it, but not for a couple of years.
• this trail really intimidates me. I had one of my worst crashes on it.
• it's a cross country race, which is a little different than the time trial I did at Yankee. It means that several people will be starting at the same time as me, as opposed to me starting on my own. Riding on a trail with a crowd of people is out of my comfort zone, since I'm always worried about being in someone else's way.
• I haven't ridden all week.

Oh, and here's the biggest reason I might be at a disadvantage.

I am racing in my second mountain bike race ever, three days before I leave for Key West to get married and a mere 9 days before my wedding.

I have so much left to do before we leave and believe it or not, I'm a little preoccupied. So, you would think I wouldn't have very high hopes. Instead, I have a pretty ambitious goal for my finishing time. I'm not going to reveal what this time is on my blog until after the race. The only one who knows at this point is Chris, and it's going to stay that way. After the race, I'll reveal my pre-race goal and indicate whether I made it or not.

At this point, there are four women (including me) in my age group. Online registration closes tonight, and there will no doubt be some onsite registrations, so it'll probably be about the same size group as the Yankee Springs race.

Random photo at the top is Chris and I in Key West (where else?). I thought I had too many rambling posts with no photos lately, so I decided to do a rambling post with a photo.