No Gainsville Love

I don't know what it is about about Gainsville lately but we don't get a long. Haile's trails use to be a guaranteed good finish, but not now. But I thought felasco could be different.

So leading up to this week everything was good. I had four good easy rides, my legs felt good, and fresh. I even restrained myself from going out every night with friends that were in town for the thanksgiving. But did go out one night, for my friends 21st birthday. Its always fun reconnecting with old friends.

The Race:
Saturday morning started early. I showed up at Bergs at 7:30 and as usual Berg had pissed his mom off. O and it was her birthday. So i just keep my mouth shut and listen to music and watch cycling movies to get pumped up before we showed up at felasco. We get there and all Bergs have settled down and things were back to normal. I get registered and eat another peanut butter and jelly sandwich, while getting focused on the job at had. I get a good warm up, piss twice, say hey to some old foes and feeling pretty confident when rolling up to the line. Good size field of 12. The gun goes off and I get a good start. I am fourth going into the first corner and stoked. I am behind a guy I didn't recognize but two that I did from the tally race. So I knew I was sitting in a good spot. I move up another spot almost taking out a Zimmerman in the process and he flipped out. It was pretty funny. So I am sitting in and everything was going to plan considering I was riding the trail off of what I knew from felasco ride, since I never preroad. The trail was honestly what I consider to be made for me. It had some long gradual climbs and some fast tight single track. But things definitely didn't go to plan.

Come the end of the first lap I was in third chasing the leaders down and could tell I was getting closer. Then slowly I started to make mistakes and then it hit me. I was starting to get asthma. It felt like I was breathing through a straw that kept getting smaller. When I get asthma I tend to raise my shoulders in distress. When on the bike it makes my handling go to shit. Not fun. So I eased off race pace and tried to settle into a pace that I could prevent the asthma from getting worse and finish the race. I lose 3 more places over the next two place but finish the race pissed off. I am glad I stuck it out but what the fuck. I barely ride before the tom brown race and get third. I ride alot and get asthma and 6th! FUCK

Though I had a shitty race, it was a motivator. I know I can finish better than that and its fucking frustrating! it made me think and think of some goals for this next year and events that I want to do well at. So I am going to keep on keepin on and try to do it right for the next. Hopefully I will live up to my own expectations and finally get this monkey off my back.