2 years ago, I was back in Tally from my short stint in Durango. Everyone expected me to come back to town in shape and they were wrong. I was able to get a surprising 3rd though.
Last year was another year of not being prepared. I had a new bike but lacked some discipline and was kinda scattered brain. Last year, mine as well be considered the scattered brain year in general.
This year was definitely the most interesting. I trained my ass off this summer. Was super disciplined and was looking like the old school Zak was back. I was flying at the Munson TT's and dropped backed down into my race weight of 135lbs. School then hit me in the face and kinda put a hamper on my 6-7 days a week of riding with two a days half the time on tuesdays and thursday. So with me actually doing school work and then add on the new distraction of ms becker, I was nervous coming into the race and maybe a little disappointed that I wasn't able to keep the training up that I had done all summer leading up to the race. The two weeks prior to the race I rode a total of two times. School was rough and I just didn't have time to ride.
Race day came and it was hot and humid. The crew was in rare form with Ron in town and having Kayla around kinda help distract me from the thought of racing. 11:30 came really fast and my warm up was kind of started rough when I found out that my pain in rear little sister squeezed my front brake. I never got it to spin really free but I had to deal and think about the whole time warming up. When they finally called up the class, my nervousness hit its peak. There was 17 damn riders in my class. That is about 7 more people then there has been in the last two years in the single speed class. I guess ss thing has really taken off lol. So the whistle blows and everybody is bumping bars going down the start and I fighting off cubans and locals and find myself in the top five. I am stoked! We hit the double track I am feeling good pass a few and here Daren behind me yelling for me to make some moves. I am also thinking I can't let him beat me! he will rub it in till next year. So I look around and I feel like the pace is to slow. Then some one attacked I followed and then counter attacked him. Boom! I already have 15 seconds on the group right after we turned into Cadillac. My head then starts running through strategies and I am thinking way to much. The plan was to sit in till the third and final lap and then make my move if possible but now I am in first and have a gap already. The trails are also slippery due to it being so dry. So I change the plan. I decide to try and get a good gap and then try and settle into a comfortable pace and let people try to over ride the course trying catch me. The plans working awesome I am 3/4 of the way done with the first lap I have a good 30 to 45 seconds but I am over doing and feeling it. I start to let off and by the end of the Cadillac on the 2nd lap second has caught and I can't keep his pace. The whole rest of the 2nd lap I can see the leader but I am still suffering to much to bring him back. Start of the last lap third place has caught me I am still hurting from the third lap. He passes me on the multi use and he is immediately gone. 2 mins later though he is yelling at me "he isn't that far up there go get him I got a flat." SCORE lol I finally find a rythm the last lap, but the leader is gone. It was to late. So I end the race in 2nd and very pleased. I was happy with the finish even though I blew it on the first lap and felt slow as Christmas the last two laps. That is till I saw the lap times! I would never in a million years guessed my lap times were as fast as they were. My avg speed was just off Davids and he rode very well in cat 1. I know that this man can elaborate a lot but man it sounded good to read this and finally hear something positive from someone other than the crew.
So after worrying my ass off and feeling slow. I wasn't really slow and it felt FUCKING good! So now what? I don't plan on going to Fernandina to trry and take the points lead but will focus my efforts of kicking some ass Gainsville. I really look to put the hammer down and fight hard to get a win after last years embarrassing experience and total fuck up. After Gainsville I will try to focus on school and the 85 mile off road spaghetti. Then the plan is to do either Felasco or Santos in Cat 1 if I can balance riding and school.
