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I hope there is homecourt advantage down there at LBL cause I got my butt whipped, but then again I was the first person between the ages of 19-29 to finish the race in the 19-29 sport men category so maybe I technically won, regardless it was a bunch of juniors that got to take home the prize money.

Race at Lbl this year started in a different location down by the bridge/overpass. Start was up a paved road, right onto another paved road and then sharp left into the woods for a bit of flat rolling rooty stuff about a mile or so worth maybe a little more then a couple climbs, namely the twin sisters or whatever they call those two climbs that are back to back down there.

I felt like ass sitting on the starting line. Kept thinking I was going to vomit. My stomach hadn't emptied out breakfast yet. Judd says go, we take off and Bill (columbia cycling winner of chickasaw) gets out front and I'm fine with that cause I know he is real fast. He got a good gap going down the road but then backed way off once we hit singletrack, I was immediately behind him. Through the first section of singletrack I was surprised at how easy he was going and felt really confident, started to question about whether it would be smarter for me to try to pass and take off cause I knew he was going to have a strong second lap if he was pacing himself that well on the first lap. There were 4 or 5 people behind me, we were all staying together up front pretty well.

In a sharp right hander going up hill I leaned a little hard and burped some air out of my rear tire, turns out I wasn't running enough pressure. That was annoying since I let some out on the starting line. My tire was pretty low and I started to lose contact a bit so when we crested the climb it opened up. I pulled off to put some air in my tire. By the time I finished everyone came around. I hopped back on and took off trying to catch everyone, I think I got a little impatient and tried to pull everyone back a little too quickly cause there were a couple times I had to back off while trying to catch back up with nick.

So I worked my way up a bit before we hit the n/s welcome station but I knew there were at least still 3 people up ahead of me. I kept seeing a kid in a wood n wave kit. I thought it was t.j. gaines. I would catch up with him on the climbs but after cresting them he would take off and get out of site. I hope that is the home-court advantage because I don't think I'm that slow of a descender. Come through for second lap at around 55 minutes. By the end of lap one I haven't caught him nor is he in site any more. I ate and drank a lot during the middle of lap one cause I felt like I needed to, for whatever reason, cold chills of phantom cramps.

Second lap I catch up with a kid that was wearing a red jersey, he looks done. I get around him and try to resolve to make it back up to kid in woodnwave jersey. Part of me is happy though cause I think I'm in 3rd place. I wrecked in an open flat gravely section cut myself up a little and cussed a little. by that time the 30-39 riders were starting to come around. Around the north south welcome station on the second lap, the threats of cramps starts to get a little more serious and I have to try not to push my legs too hard. I drain the remaing fluids I have in my bottles and try to just keep it steady.

Roll through the finish line at around 1:54. Turns out there were three people ahead of me. One columbia cycling and two wood n wavers. Winning time was around 1:46. There is no way I could've done that time even on a good day.

long and the short of it, not a good race for me. Not sure why but I didn't have the legs for that length of time. could've been a ton of different things to cause that but I'd rather not worry too much about it.