Downieville 9-6-03

"Pathetic"

                    I am so disappointed and I feel so Pathetic for myself. As I sit here and write these words. "65th" dead last in my class. Guess this was my turn to be trail sweeper for the Sport class. Something was not right from the beginning. MY head was not in it, my legs were not juiced like they normally feel before a ride of any sort, and my attitude just sucked. I guess this is what it feel's like to have an off day,extremely bad off day!

                      I knew I was in trouble when the urge came over me to walk my bike up to Packer Saddle. The very same climb I nailed with no problems a month before? As I look up and see a solid line of MTBer's tire to tire spinning up this crazy climb, I thought to myself why am I here? and why am I doing this? I am just one number out of hundreds maybe thousand of MTBer's doing this climb from hell. Why! cant I do this climb? My purpose and urge just gone. Bonking had started in. I forged on never stopped moving.

                      Curtis ( beginner class ) blew by before I even got to the top of Packer Saddle. At this point it became my goal just to finish the race. Once at the top 9-10mile in to the race I already felt fatigued and worn out,and the first round of leg carping had started in. Drank some more water slammed down some cliff shot and tried to get a second wind back. Left inner quad muscle kept moving,tried to move it back, just left it there and kept sinning down hill fast as I could. Second round of carping left calf muscle froze up solid with unbelievable amount of pain. Felt like my leg was in cement,had to physically pull foot back in to position, dam that one hurt. The Grande finally a couple miles from town both leg decide to let me have it. I had to stop completely, could hardly walk try to get off the narrow Sigel track. Had to sit down and try to work out the pain and muscles carping, with a mind of there own. At this point I wanted to cry like a big boy could and just let it flow because of my overall disappointment, did not think I was going to finish with much pain and carping.

                       Before you know it here comes Dave ( 5th beginners ). I pick myself up trying to clip in and just see if I could just spin in a low gear to get myself in to town. I forged on with smooth strokes as possible. I made it, thank God! Racing MTB's is all new to me, this is a huge learning lesson for me, and so it should be. This is to date the worst racing experience I have had and will learn from it greatly. RACING Mtb's maybe more Science then Art?
     
                        Sunday morning. Despite both legs being completely sore, 4 Trogs come up with a plan to do a epic trail ride starting from Deer lake. We visit Grass lake ( good ) then we press on to go see Deer lake ( very nice ). 20 miles later, this is what I Mountain Bike for.

TFL
Joseph