Soldier Hollow

In 2003, I almost quit MTB racing at Soldier Hollow.

I had spent the previous year finishing well, but never really able to compete with Ian Harvey or Todd Henneman. At the end of the `03 season I decided I was going to step it up a level and hire a coach so I could race at the front.

My coach put me on a steady diet of high-intensity intervals on the Computrainer, starting in about February. I should have given him more feedback, but didn't and I was quickly over-trained and life wasn't good. I felt tired all the time. "The price of speed" I thought. But I wasn't fast. In fact I was slower than I had ever been the previous year.

I went to St. George, and raced in the rain/snow with chain-suck every turn of the cranks. Cold, miserable, and 25 minutes behind Dave Harward, whom I had never heard of, who won the race. Someone had told me it was his first year MTB racing...Anyway, I think I flatted or something at 5 Mile and walked in to the finish, dead last.

Then came Soldier Hollow. I'd hired my coach, I'd followed his instructions precisely, and I'd sacrificed a lot (I thought). David Harward took off like a bullet at the start, and I looked at Ian - "Either that guy is fast, or stupid!" "He's fast," Ian replied. He was right. I didn't see David (or Ian) again that day, and he beat me by 14 minutes. I was miserable. "Maybe I just don't have it" I thought. "Maybe this coach put me on the plan that works for real athletes, and I'm just not one. Maybe its time to quit." It didn't take me long to realize my thinking was absurd, especially considering I'd raced pretty well the year before. I fired my coach and adjusted my attitude, with the new attitude returning to the old -- I'd find gratification in the training, enjoy the races but not focusing so much on placing, and let results come as they may. It took the rest of the season to recover from the over-training, but I had a lot more fun after that.

This Year I came to the race with more confidence than usual. I've felt pretty good all week and been looking forward to the race, even though I've never felt like this has been a good course for me in the past.

We started fast. Orange Leader took off with the rider formerly known as Big Shark. OL lead the race for about 10 minutes, then I went by followed by Brad (Bp) and Hooptedoodle (HpD). Initially I had a some seconds, then Bp and caught up, then fell behind. On the upper section of the first lap I looked back and saw HpD blasting up to us. I think that took some serious effort, and he rode even pace with us on top after catching up. He then fell back a little on the descent, and Bp passed him somewhere in there.

I tried something new this race in that instead of bottles, I had Scott hand up CamelBaks. I have two, and Ian has one. It worked quite well, although getting them on is a little tricky. It was pretty warm (maybe 80? not sure), so I was glad to have easy drinking on the bumpy course.

At the bottom of lap 2 HpD disappeared. Turned out he had a loose wheel skewer and he stopped to fix it. Bp continued the pursuit, so the pace stayed high. We passed several pros by the end, including Bart Gillespie, who seemed to have a really lousy day. Bp was slowly backing away. By early lap three I could catch glimpses of him only here and there. At the top of the climb it was clear I had a large gap, but late in the third lap I saw a new face behind me and thought perhaps someone unknown in my class had hit the gas, passed the others, and was coming for me. I increased the effort, and he didn't gain any more time. I crossed the line.

It turned out the unknown face was the winning pro who had just finished his 12&under lap after doing three laps, so he was about 10 minutes ahead of us.

Then I saw HpD and Bp coming in. HpD had ridden a great race and I was surprised to see he had passed Bp. They were sprinting for the finish, and HpD maintained the advantage across the line. Turned out Bp's shifter had not been working properly on the last lap. Might have been different otherwise, but it wasn't.

I felt good today. Even after the race I've felt good. I'm glad I didn't quit in 2003. Bp and I had a nice time at Granny's with Scott and Ian after the race, too. I really like the guys in our class. They are fast riders, but are also intelligent, interesting people. It makes it a lot more fun.

Kim had a triathlon in Bountiful today so she was not at the race. She doesn't really know how she did because they had timing problems. Supposedly they have some way of going back and figuring it out, but it sounded questionable. All she knows right now is that she gave it a good effort.

Reed was at the race, but he DNF'd due to health issues. He thinks he had food poisoning on Wednesday, although it sounded a lot like what I had before 5 Mile.