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By the way, since I wasn't able to get
Jason his jersey before the race, I wasn't able to recognize
him until it was too late to get any photos. I suck. Next
time!
 This
was my first sport class race (senior 2) since coming out
of retirement, and my goal was to be in the top 50% at the
finish.
I hate to complain and list
excuses after racing, but I have to explain my string of bad
luck on Sunday so that you all can learn from my mistakes,
because I never seem to.
My wife, Karen, and I got a
little lost on the way to the course. I think that the directions
were wrong. Anyway, we pulled in with about 40 minutes until
start time. All stressed out, I quickly dressed, registered,
and got in line.
My legs felt good and fresh
but I couldn't start as fast as everyone was going, so I settled
in for a first lap warm-up, somewhere in the back third of
the group. I've always hated this course, but after this first
lap, I hated it even more.
My FSR felt like a hardtail
and was rattling my bones. What's going on? Did I put 100
psi in my tires? After the first lap, I checked my rear shock
and it was locked-out. One flip and, ahhhh, back to comfort.
The second lap I felt better
and was closing in on my comrades ahead of me. But the camelback
was starting to run low, and it was getting hot.
The third lap was wearing me
down, but I was determined to catch a group of four in front
of me. Just as I'm about to close the gap, a horrible scraping
noise was coming from my crank. At first, I thought it was
my front derailleur, and kept pushing it. But it was getting
near impossible to turn the cranks. I stopped to check it
out, and it was my suspension pivot bolt. It had worked itself
out and
was jamming my little chainring. I couldn't reach it with
an allen key, I couldn't tighten it, couldn't stab it with
a screw driver, couldn't do anything except starting running.
I needed a crank puller for
an Octalink crank, and I don't normally carry one of those
in my pocket, although I am considering it now. Well, I think
that the last 3 miles I ran, walked and cursed my way to the
finish line.
Well I'm thankful for no flats,
no crashes, and that I finished. But, I need to remember,
tighten those pivot bolts and use lock-tite, and not to take
this racing-stuff so seriously.
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