beautiful day for a ride

my heart wanted to go fast, my brain said no. my plan was to take it slow so i'd be able to finish. as the race went on i debated if i'd rather finish or see how fast i could go. i'm glad i kept to my goal to finish. i'm not even sure if i could go fast. i had little goals along the way like get to the finish before the elites catch you and cleaning the roots of all evil (killed it on the last lap). i finished 2nd to last. i wouldn't have cared if it were last, i still would have finished.
my fitness was, well, not there. my technical skills were rusty. by lap two they were starting to come around. by lap three i was railing turns and bombing the hills and catching air. i cleared roots of all evil. and then the equalizer killed me good on the last lap. this is me after making it half way up the first time around (my bike rules):

















i'm glad nobody was there to get a pic of me on the last lap. i could've cried it hurt so bad. i was a millimeter away from cramping with every step. i want to thank the smoking guy for the encouragement to get my ass to the top. the race was everything i expected. i'm not disappointed at all. i would have course loved to have done better, but i'll worry about that for next year.
john had a good race. he took 3rd age group.