A few minutes into an active warm up and things did not feel too bad, by that I mean, I could feel fatigue from the training yesterday as I started to move the lactic acid around but felt confident that I could compete, at least against myself.
You know when you get days when it feels like the universe is sending you a stop and decease message, or at least slowing you down and making you think. Well that was this morning for me. After getting all my kit together all I needed was my shoes, simple right? wrong. The shoes where not were they normally are. Just what you need before a race is no shoes. I looked everywhere and nope no shoes. Sarah then suggested I might not have picked them up after the last race at Marymoor and you can guess how that made me feel. To say the house hold was a little tense is a fair statement.
Not to be deterred, I dropped a note on facebook asking if anyone had found shoes after the last race and dug up a very old pair to ride with. ah ha foiled the attempt to race, Matthew 1, Universe 0. With "Where the Hell are my shoes" still floating around my mind we headed out to the race.
Now at this point I want to clarify that men heading to races can be somewhat terse, unreasonable or as Sarah puts it a little snippy, especially when they have lost their shoes. This is not the best time to remind them that they need to be more organized. Even if it is a true and correct statement as it was for me this morning (sorry for being a Bear Sarah).
We arrived at Woodland Park in plenty of time to register and get a scouting lap in. As I walked up to the tent the first thing out of my mouth after good morning was "did anyone pick up a pair of shoes at the Marymoor race". Wahoo, the answer was yes. What a cool crew. We registered and on our return my shoes where waiting for me. Things are looking up maybe the universe was not sending me a message after all (Matthew 2, Universe 0).
I headed out for recon lap of the course and quickly learned that it was a fast and technical course with lots of transitions from grass to mud to gravel to road in wet conditions. Oh did I mention slippery, yup slippery. On the upside the weather forecast was wrong (go figure) no rain and I was not complaining. Finishing up the 1.8 mile lap I headed back to the tent and then out to the staging area.
My smiling face - I made it to the race :)
The race headed out and then narrowed quickly as the whole bunch hit what can only be called single track +. Lots of jostling and bumping and energized races tried to find an outlet to release pent up energy.
Of the races I have participated in this year so far this one had the steepest run ups and greatest number of transitions. It caught more that a few of the racers of guard.
And man the boards where high
despite everything I was enjoying the race, ok so enjoying is not exactly the right word, maybe suffering righteously through it is better but I was their and doing my best. I was even pulling a few people back when disaster struck. My front tire went soft and then completely flat. When that happens the first thing that goes through your mind is how can I keep going, and I tried until I transitioned to road. If you are not aware of what happens when you transition from mud to road with a flat tire on a corner then you are lucky. The front wheel slid away from me and only through what I would like to think of as awesome bike handling skills but was probably a combination of quick reflex's and good luck I stayed up right, although I did hear "Good Recovery" from a spectator so maybe it was awesome bike handling skills, yup I'm going with that, it's my blog.
Pushing on with a Flat Tire at this point
Just before transition to road that very nearly landed my on my ass, if not for my awesome bike handling skills
So the universe had it's way in the end Matthew 2, Universe Flat Tire in lap 3 and Game Over. Some plans you just can't fight, but it doesn't mean you have to be happy about it
For those of you interested here are my race stats.
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