A few day leading up to the race, I started my strava stalking of my competition. Someone who has been training incredibly hard. I looked up the past race times of her laps at this course. Faster than what I have ever done 9 miles. But, it gave me a place to start setting goals. I knew that I wanted to do both laps between 55-65 minutes. I knew that I wanted to place towards the top of the crowd. I was used to racing in races where cat 2 drew maybe 1 or 2 women, 3 if it was a popular trail. Once I raced 9 women in an open category and that was awesome!
It was a beautiful day on Sunday, before the start of my race. It was sunny and warm when riding. My pre ride felt great. It made me feel a little too cocky for what was to come. I was hitting the technical stuff, I was conering good, and my legs felt great. I was prepared to get the hole shot into the woods and just ride away from the other women, who I knew where really strong riders. And I did just that, well, the first part. I got the hole shot into the woods. I was aggressive, but 2nd place was on my ass and I worked to try and pull away from her. I got a good gap on the rock garden climb. And again on the rocky flat area where I was able to sprint and she fumbled in the rocks. But my conering was nowhere ready to allow me to keep the gap. Where I lost speed, she gained. I could hear her and it was getting to me. Finally I told her to let me know when she wanted around, and soon I was trying to hold on to her wheel as she just effortlessly flew around the tight turns.
I looked behind me to see where 3rd place was. Maybe I could come in 2nd. Which would be a surprise because 3rd place was who I was thinking would blow me out of the water. I couldn't see her. And I could feel my legs protesting against the high speeds I was asking them to keep. I slowed my breathing. Focusing on trying to keep 1st in sight as she grew smaller and smaller. I was 6 miles in when I could see that my speed was slowly decreasing. I looked behind me and there was 3rd place only about 30 seconds behind. I pushed harder to keep at it, and when I looked behind me again, I stupidly went off the trail just a little and hit my front tire off a log, making me come unclipped and have to stop. There goes 3rd place, now 2nd and me trying to hurry up and stay on her wheel. Which I did, for a mile until I flipped over my handlebars on a rocky descent. Now the gap I was working so hard to not let get big, just increased by a minute probably. I jump back on my bike and chase after her. But I lose sight of her not long after the crash.
When I get back to the start, I see that my time is at 54:49. I have completed one small goal of mine. I have done 9 miles under 55 minutes. And yes, I had another 9 miles to go, but that first part didn't seem like it took forever like I thought it would. So I gained a little confidence in myself and started to push again. When I got to the rock garden climb, I was told that I had closed the gap by 30 seconds. So I started riding as hard as I could again. I want to try and catch her if I could. Even if I couldn't pass her, I wanted to at least have her in my sights.
That never happened. My legs weren't going to climb as fast as they did that first lap. I probably added 20+ seconds to every climb I did that second lap. Even the flat sections started to feel longer and harder. I knew that I had to keep going if I wanted to place 3rd. I had one girl behind me (or so I told myself, we did have 4 registered, but I only started with 3. However, I knew the 4th girl was somewhere close to the starting line when we left). I didn't want to get beat after having worked that hard.
I wanted to finish the race in 1:50, but I finished in 1:55:56. I finished my second lap in one hour and 13 seconds. So I did complete my goal of finishing both laps between 55-65 minutes. And I was happy about that. I also saw areas that I had improved in. For example, I am faster than I was a year ago. My overall endurance has increased. However, I also saw areas I needed to improve on: speed for endurance, cornering at higher speeds, and just continuous climbing. I am proud of how I did. Finishing 3rd was awesome. But next time I went to be faster, better, and stronger. I have 3 weeks before my next race, and you better believe that I will be training even harder until then.
