Race, color nor creed

Not really a fitting title. Here's what happened this weekend.

Time Trial: I didn't warm up as well as I should have so I felt like I was going to shit my chamois the whole time I was climbing up the ridge. Other than that it was pretty non-eventful. I finished with a time of 21:38 or something like that, good enough for next to last place, but it wasn't last so I was content to not try another run. I was also content with my time because it was faster than all of the sport times I saw posted aside from the one posted by that hummer driving preacher man. I didn't try another run and I didn't do short track because I knew the cross country race on Sunday was going to hurt.

XC: It was freaking cold while we were warming up. The sun hadn't made it to the valley of the shadow of doubt yet so the grass was still frosted and I knew there was going to be some freeze thaw in effect on the trails. After rolling around for a while we lined up and went, the start was relatively slow only a couple guys were up front really working to get the hole shot. There were 20 guys on the line for the expert race. There were quite a few of us that were content to sit back near the back. I got into the woods with a few people behind me and more up front. I was riding really conservatively because I knew it was going to be a long race I think quite a few others were doing the same. When we got to the wagon trail Bo, Tom and some other guy went around. I rode their wheel for a while but then let them slip off because I didn't have much confidence that I could keep that pace for the whole race. I think their gap opened up the most when I stopped to take off one of my shoe covers. Towards the end of the first lap I was catching back up with Bo but Tom and the other guy were nowhere to be seen. I stopped in the field and took of my other shoe cover. Some little girl ran through the finishing area without looking both ways and I nearly plowed her. Second lap involved some serious granny ringing so that I could save enough in my legs to make it to the finish. On the switchbacks I was catching up with a couple other guys like John Grant and the guy I didn't know that had previously passed me. When we got up top they got away from me some but were still within site until I dropped a gu on the wagon road. I stopped to pick it up (because I wasn't in a hurry) but I couldn't unclip so I fell over, one of the screws in my cleat had come out so the cleat was spinning around and I couldn't get out even while I was laying on the ground, so I had to take the shoe off and get it unclipped with my hand. Then I stood in the middle of the trail with one shoe on waiting for the guy behind me to catch up so I could bum a tool. He let me borrow one, I tightened the cleat up and eventually caught back up with him and passed him back. A few miles later I stopped again to add some air to my front tire, it was too squishy in the turns. With a little over a mile to go, I finally caught back up with Bo because he broke down. Apparently he was doing something with his skewer and the end shot off of it to be lost in the leaves of the woods. I finished feeling pretty wiped out, I fell over again at the car, almost on top of dustin greer because the cleat in my other shoe had come undone and I couldn't unclip. Guess I should check my cleat screws before the next race.

Goal for the race: Don't finish DFL. Accomplished. Avg heart rate 168, max 184. That's a pretty low average hr for me. Maybe next time maybe I can be a little more aggressive.