Trail Rash

Me: I don't know what time I should shoot for now. I did 1:40 on Saturday and 1:32 on Wednesday. But Wednesday's time was probably just a fluke. I should probably pick something in between the two. Or maybe I'll shoot for 1:35 and follow my original plan.

Chris: No, you can do it faster than that. You should shoot for 1:27.

Me: I don't know. I don't think I can do it that fast. What if I'm slower during the race?

Chris: You always ride faster in a race. Your goal should be 1:27.

My official time today was 1:27:51. I guess I should listen to my husband more, because despite several crashes, one of which was a fairly spectacular endo, I still managed to finish the race with a time 20 minutes faster than I raced the course last year. Twenty minutes. That's how much I shaved off my time. For me, that's huge.

So it took a bit of the sting away from the fact that I only beat two people, when I was really hoping to end up somewhere in the middle of the pack. I would up finishing 7 of 9 (that's right, a Star Trek reference, but it's true). Still, the group was faster overall than last year. I think the winner of my age group last year had a time of 1:28 and this year the winning time in beginner women 30+ was 1:10.

As you can see, I got a bit banged up with all the crashing. All the rain and drizzle combined with roots and rocks made for some slippery sections. That punctuated with some less than stellar decisions on my part made for the most crashes I have ever had during a race. Luckily, Maddy and the G-dog were on the job as soon as they saw my wounds, so I'm sure the healing will begin forthwith.

One other observation from my husband was that this year I was actually "in the race" in terms of my competition. He said he thought I could actually be competitive this year. That's because last year, not only was I last in my age group, I finished 10 minutes behind the person in front of me. Today I was only 40 seconds behind the person in front of me. I probably could even have beat her if I had only crashed twice instead of five times.

Even though there were a few things that were disappointing, overall, I think it's great progress. A little more confidence and a lot more time on the trail working on my skills and I could be a "contenda."