Race went good… big turn out …in the men’s pro /cat 1 category there was 35 people.
It had been raining a lot that week so the conditions were pretty muddy… it was nice that the rain gave way just before the race… still got a bit wet from sweat and puddle splashes but not completely waterlogged.
I was worried going into this race because I had sprained my wrist a couple weeks prior at the gym lifting weights…
my wrist was weak and unable to move in certain direction… for the first week I had the problem I wasn’t able to ride my bike, turn the key in my car ignition or a door knob with my right hand… it felt pretty messed up… but in the past week my wolverine like mutant healing strength kicked in and my wrist made a lot of progress…
If you are unaware of the wolverine healing factor I included this very informative article…. Just click on wolverine….
I also found this article that explored the possibility of using wolverine’s healing factor to cure the swine flu… mmmmmm…. a very interesting proposition.
The wrist doesn’t have complete mobility but it was good enough that I felt comfortable wrapping it up tight and racing… my worries were that I might re-injure it or be forced to drop out if it because too painful but I hardly noticed the wrist problem and had a great race….minus the start...i started off 4th row and had a foot slip off the pedal... so I was pretty far back probably 30th…
here is the is a video of us at the beginning of the race
I passed a lot of people and was feeling good… I caught up with Brent Mellen and we rode together for the last 2 laps we passed some more guys and finished together… I came in 7th and Brent came in 8th…
Brent and I were planning on competing in the wildcat epic team stage race mid June in the Catskills of NY but due to lack of registered entries the race organizers called it off… we were both bummed … we would have made a good team… maybe next year?
the winner of the race Kevin Hines is the masters national champion @ 49 year old!!... I really hope to be still be competitively fast when I am old… i brought up this topic in a previous blog entry.
I think a lot of people who get up there in age set a mental block that prevents them from continuing to try…they feel over the hill , like it is unnatural to continue and use they use this as an excuse. I suppose kids, jobs ,other life issues and time management issues play a major role but for the most part I think it is the societal expectation that influences peoples perception of what they are capable of achieving that is to blame… that’s my theory anyway …seeing as I am not actually that old yet ,I cant say for sure… I will be sure to make a blog entry about this 20 year from now when I know first hand… Hopefully with some persistence and smart training I will be riding as strong as Kevin.
