Just finished my "Health and Physical Activity Promotion" course, the course title is pretty deceiving because I thought it would be something along the lines of how to make the proper bristel boards to encourage kids and not-so-in-shape people to exercise but it's not that at all. The professor is the ex-athletics director so he's got some pretty good insight on alot of things, he asked some pretty interesting questions today that get you thinking quite a bit. Makes the 3 hours go by a little quicker but I'm hoping my ass doesn't cramp up everyday from sitting in such a small chair for so long. Could be because of the race, oh yeah, the race.
So I arrived at De Cal's just before 7 and there was no time waisted getting packed up and gone, we were out of the driveway by 7. A few stops for this and that and we arrived at Mansfield, got a pretty sweet T and suited up to warm up. I found it funny how my warm up for this race was longer than my warm ups for the first o-cups at the beginning of the year, race and learn.
The start was pretty relaxed, my race almost ended very quickly when I tried to ride over the first bridge over a log and nearly ate it since it was as slippery as ice. The first hill was a hike but thankfully there wasn't much more of that, I stayed at a steady pace with no one around and slowly realled in the 2WE/3Rox train of Preston, Jamie and Cory. We rode together for quite some time, it was great to follow them in the trails because of how smooth they ride, we picked up the pace after the first feed zone because a couple SSers were catching up, can't have that. I still had a full bottle by the second feed zone and I remembered Kerton saying the 1st and 3rd weren't too far apart so I skipped it and kept riding. I was riding very smooth in the ST and going hard on the climbs, ended up realing in a guy who told me he was in 6th. Kept it steady and caught another guy from La Bici before the third feed zone so I thought I was in 5th. Right on.
Turns out I was 6th with 5th 2 minutes ahead, that got me pumped, a little too pumped maybe because I started going super hard on the DT and standing to hammer all the climbs, no one was in sight but I was hoping I can hold the pace and the guy in front was cooked. My legs were feeling great but I had to back the pace way down because of how sore my back was, upper and lower, it was awful. Coming towards the parking lot I was just happy I made it and kept my spot until we turned right and had to go up one of the biggest climbs and I saw Tim Carleton just ahead. I couldn't bridge, I was done, it was just a relief to make it to the top of the climb and crawl in to the finish alive.
I ended up finishing 6th with Tim under a minute ahead and 5 and a half minutes down from the winner. Huge props to De Cal for the win, he knew he had the win no matter what so he rode a few trails extra out there just to get some better training in for Paul's. After Sunday, I'm super pumped for Paul's, I'll have to hold back a little longer and maybe start out even slower, should be a good learning experience. Nothing much to do this week but empty the fridge and listen to some very smart people talk, maybe a ride or 2.
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