1st race of the year

It's that time of year again, when it seems all my posts are mountain bike related. So here goes: I had my first race of the season today, and I graduated into sport class this year. This means that instead of only doing one lap, I do two. The race started and I was doing pretty well. I did the first lap in about 37 minutes. Last year, on the same course, I did the lap in 51 minutes, so I was feeling pretty good about my time so far. Then the saecond lap came. It started good, I did the two climbs on the lap no problem, then on the last descent, about a mile or so away from the finish line, my tire flatted. ARGHH!! I had to decide whether or not to stop and fix it, or just run with the bike across the finish. Since I despise running, I opted to fix it. Overall, it cost me 10 to 15 minutes to get it going again. I still finished the race, but my second lap time was 51 minutes. Overall it took me about an hour and a half to finish, which isn't too bad if you consider that each lap averaged 45 minutes. Overall, I took 10th place. The flat tire cost me a few spots, but it's all good since I wasn't in a position to podium anyway.

For the first time ever, I experienced cramps. I started to notice the cramps on the first climb of lap 2, not too bad though, but as soon as I finished, and got off the bike, my right leg just tensed up! I couldn't even move! It was so painful! you could see my thigh muscle just sticking out of my leg. It actuall looked pretty funny. Then about an hour after the race, I was sitting, doing nothing, then the left leg just cramped. OUCH! it hurt so bad I almost cried!, almost.

As always, enjoy the photos!

The racers, pre race

Here I am nearing the end of lap one. Cheryl was kind enough to hike up the trail to get this action shot.

If you saw that guy in the other picture, and barely in this one, I passed him about 3 seconds after this picture.

Here I am finishing, after I fixed my flat.