Winsted Woods

I arrived at the race, with enough time to register and change, but not enough time to pre-ride the course. The temps were in the lower 50s which was pretty darn cold. Standing at the start line, I was pleased to see that the numbers swelled from 2 pre-reg names to 11. Glancing around, I realized that I didn't know anyone. I'm still very new to this sport. The course started in a lower parking lot, then up a hill to the fields with a quick right then left and into the woods where it narrowed to singletrack. Knowing the importance of positioning, as soon as the whistle blew, I attacked. Going up the rise I had a small lead and was able to make it to the singletrack first. With a previous days rain creating lots of mud and puddles, and coming from years of road racing, I immediately started to slow. First one, then another and a third guy passed me. I settled into fourth place and comfortably rode with this group for a couple of minutes. As we made it to the first fast downhill section on a fire road, I realized my rear tire had gone flat. No neutral support in mountain bike racing, so I pulled to the side of the course and set to fix my tire. The entire field I started in passed me, as did the entire field that started two minutes behind, and I'm pretty certain a third field passed me. The effects of starting cold, red-lining for 10 minutes, then stopping and changing a tire were very overwhelming. Staying calm, I completed the repair, got on my bike and tried to start racing again. The next two laps were almost absolute solo events. The hardest thing in cycling is being off the back of the group and still trying to go as hard as you can to reconnect. Just when I was about to give up mentally, I passed a friend who supported my effort by telling me that everyone else was tiring, that I still had the strength to go. This was enough to snap me out of my funk and get going again. The next lap and a half saw me passing loads of riders. Although, in mountain biking, it's almost impossible to know who you are racing against, as many fields are on course at one time. All I could do was just go..go..go. Two hours and ten minutes after I started, I crossed the line in seventh place. There's always the would have, could have, should have thoughts, such as if I hadn't lost three minutes with a flat, my time would have been good enough for...but those thoughts won't change the standings. I'm pleased with just mentally hanging in there. Reviewing the series points, my seventh place was good enough to move me up into third place overall in the series, that is enough of a reward in itself!!!