Race Report: Short Track MTB #7

I wasn’t DFL so I’m going to declare victory.

This week’s excuses:

• Haven’t raced in four weeks.
• Disspiriting head injury in my last race.
• Recent long MTB ride with tons of difficult verticals.
• Four hours’ sleep.

Improbably: finished 47 of 57. I had nothing in my legs, nada. Every time I stood up to grind: nothing came out.

My goal however was to finish on the winner’s lap (5) but alas no.

Afterward, Team O fielded 5/10ths of a relay team (anchored by two ringers, Susannah and Sharon Hart!). That was fun. 3 minutes of pure psychotic hammering.

Both Orion and Iris raced in the kiddie rodeo. Orion had about 20 warm-up laps and did awesome as usual. I feared Iris wouldn’t make it all the way through her race — she made about 1/5th of a warmup lap with me beforehand, and declared herself “tired” and quit. Hoo boy, I thought, no way she’s going to finish tonight.

But come the moment of her race, she queued up like a competitor (at the front!) and was off like a shot. A kid coming up fast behind took her down hard — keeping in mind, of course, that these racers are all of two feet off the ground, so “hard” is a little relative. But still: scrapes and crying. Iris, despite being visibly shaken, jumped right back up, got back on the bike, and rode out the rest of her race. So damn proud. She showed grit and perserverance and resliency. I am not giving Iris enough credit. Probably because she’s a little like me? Because right up until the moment the start whistle blows, every damn time, I’m all “this race, meh?)

Anyway, Iris was once again my race inspiration, when I was ready to call it DNF after about Lap 1. “If my three-year-old daughter can push through, no way I’m gonna DNF.”

Equipment notes

• Rode the Kona, let’s stick with gears and fat tires and relaxed geometries, shall we? Fewer endos that way.
• Given the nothing-left-ness of my legs, I should have shoved my seatpost full up and spun hard. But I set my rig up exactly opposite, expecting a need to drop off the back of the saddle for some unlikely non-head-injury-sustaining reason.

Update: Team photo courtesy HotFootPhoto/Hopworks Brewery/Portland Racing