First Collegiate Race

Current Song: Over the Hills and Far Away, Led Zeppelin
What I did Today: 3 hour road ride with the team
Energy: tired, finally recovering from being sick.

Well sitting here, it seems the What I did today section has not changed much from summer. It is probably because I omit what I want but the whole college schedule thing works for me. I can ride as long as I want most days so finally my training is not interrupted by school! Still no pictures, the essence of this place can't really be captured in pictures. but soon I will attempt it. For now, one must deal with just words.

This week included an awesome skills clinic on tuesday, a rest day monday and a big milestone- the first collegiate race of my career which is what I would really like to report on. First day short track. I was very bummed this is what would start off my collegiate career and I can't say I am too proud of the result. After 4 crashes on the start, me and my teammate Kody Adams finally got rolling, a full half lap behind the leaders and we hadn't even done one lap. The course had an awesome double (probably a 5 foot gap) but other than that it was fast and well, short. This made for a lot of pulling. Kody got pulled first as I just barely made the cut, I didn't the next lap, leaving my race at about 4 laps or 6 minutes of racing. Awesome. It was a hard race and its frustrating. Well that was it on that.

The cross-country I was looking for some redemption. First of all there was no pulling so I knew I could at least race the whole time which was an accomplishment in itself at that point. I had an ok start, that put me about midway through the 40 man A pack. I was psyched to have made it that far so I was already happy. About halfway through the first lap I realized there was no way I could hold up such a pace. I ended up just taking a little off and ramping it up from there for the duration of the 5 lap race. It totally worked. With a tube getting stuck in the wheel I had to keep fighting to pass two more people and ended up sprinting the faster of the two and winning. All in all a very good day. I was able to pass people every lap and keep bettering myself, in fact my last lap was the fastest! It may have something to do with the position I started the lap, it changed everytime, but it was no dramatic loss which was good. I kept strong for the second half of the lap even though I was hurting. When the guy behind me tried to make the move I was strong enough to counter it and end up ahead. I was extremely happy to learn that I finished that day in 9th. Hopefully its not a plateau but I will be happy with a top ten in a field like that any day!

Well the college adventure continues, and gets better every day. Classes are actually really cool and having people to ride with is so unexplainably awesome. All I can say is, Everything is a once in a lifetime experience.