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