Days before my first mountain bike race of the season starts off like every other, I lack confidence in my ability and my mind fills with negative thoughts giving me reasons as to why I will lose and embarrass myself: I haven’t had much time in the saddle…there’s a new baby in the house and I can’t sleep…my bike is acting up when I shift in 2nd gear…I don’t know the trail…my wheels are 26inches…I am racing chicks 15 years younger and my flippen hair is turning grey…etc…
The race was at Dr. TK Lawless Park in Jones, Mi. It is a 10 mile twisty single track with lots of ups and downs. I have only ridden the course once so I was excited to hear that Dwight and David made plans for us to meet 9am Memorial Day to ride. Well Memorial Day rolled around and it was 50 degrees and raining. Dwight picked me up with our bikes loaded. I was under the impression we were just going to meet the Goffs, go have breakfast and if it cleared up we would ride. Wrong! Those crazy men still wanted to ride! Since little Goff (12 year old Dillan) was up for it, I didn’t want to be that wimpy girl and agreed to a lap. Really what the heck we were already there. The trail was greasy, our clothes were wet and glasses fogged. I have to admit it was fun, but I was happy to be back at the trailhead as I assumed we would be done and heading for some hot cocoa. To my surprise, little Goff wanted to do another lap! I grudgingly agreed, I figured screw it, my makeup was already ruined and I couldn’t get any colder and muddier than I already was. (Darn kid came from that crazy Goff gene pool!) Hindsight I am sure this experience greatly helped me!
Race day came with word that my nemeses Emily Andrews would be competing. Throughout the NIMBA series last year we were strongly pushing each other for podium placement. As much as I love her personality and how we antagonize each other on the trail, I wasn’t feeling ready for her this season…I anticipated a serious butt kick.
I was excited that Andrea was able to make a race with me as she is one of my best girlfriends and teammates. We were able to get a couple warm up miles in together. At the time it felt as if we were going to do our casual ride chatting about life etc…It didn’t hit me until we got to the start line that we would be competing, not just against other girls but each other! Since it was a time trial she was taking off 30 sec. behind me with Emily being a min. It was supposed to be a competition not a group ride.
You would think this was my first year racing not first race of the season. I had my long sleeve jersey on over my short sleeve with intentions on taking it off before the start. Unfortunately I freaked myself out over tire pressure and double checked that and then headed to the start. It wasn’t until I had a minute before takeoff when I realized I still had it on. Upon start, my silly self-fumbled to get into my clip. Soon after I finally got rolling, I was to make a left off the pavement and go up the sandy hill. I completely forgot about the sharpness and over breaked and climbed at about 6-7 miles an hour. I knew I was in trouble because Ryan (Andreas fiance’) was already there waiting to cheer her on. I wanted a redo!
It didn’t take long into the single track to realize how greasy it was. I was slipping all over the place. At times the trail was tight, curvy, and rooty. I found myself looking down at the roots and not ahead at what was to come. My tires slipped all over the place, even rolling into a tree head on but fortunately I was going slow enough that it just stopped me in my tracks. The trail twisted around so when I saw a glimpse of a helmet or heard a break squeak I swore the girls were on me! It pushed me to go harder but that also came with additional mistakes. On the flats and down hills, I peddled as hard as I could to make up time. When I reached good speeds they were accompanied by screw ups on greasy corners. I didn’t crash but had 3 dead stops preventing me from going off the trail. Finishing the race I was so disappointed in myself…I swore I couldn’t shake the girls and they were on me the entire time. I seriously wondered how I ever called myself a mountain biker. As I complained about my skills I saw two of the men I passed and started to realize they were the riders I was hearing on the trail! I finished in 53:25. I was shocked to find I had the lead by 4 plus minutes and really wasn’t as sucky of a mountain biker as I thought! The conditions were slick and everyone had issues!
~April Parrish