Desert chunk and great weather to be promised, the 92Fifty' crew was plentiful and stoked to be soaking up desert sun all weekend.
After preriding the some of the course thur/friday with friends, I was becoming somewhat skeptical of my skill level in such technical riding. Billy and Jon were killing the tech stuff and once you let Mr. Negative in your head, he's a hard man to rid of.
Jeff Kerkove and Richie headed out to preride from the hotel.
All the ladies want a piece.
One of my best friends from Nashville came to race, Billy had a killer race for his first 100 mile MTB race ever.
Lining up at the start, I was never nervous. Completely calm, it was as if something in me changed. I was ready to race and I believed in myself 100%. I have busted my ass all winter long training in the cold and snow at altitude where most people would never train. I came to race! I fist pounded my friends, wished everyone good luck and the race was on.
The race started with a 3ish mile jeep road full of slate chucky washes in and out, up and down. Guys are flying in every direction at 20+ mph so I quickly made my way to the front with Josh Tostado, Drew Edsall and Cary Smith. Drew was feeling spunky and made his move early, pretty much as soon as we hit singletrack, he was gone and would solo for the win the entirety of the race. Brave, and very impressive.
I stuck to Cary Smith's wheel the next 10 miles or so, we traded pulls on the open sections. I had never felt so comfortable riding in the front group of an NUE race. I was hammering and everything was under control, HR was perfect, I was on top of the world. All of the techy stuff I was fretting in preride I was clearing with ease at a fast pace. I was gaining confidence and race adrenaline was blocking out one major issue that soon led to a DNF for me.
We had a training camp prior to this race in Moab, I injured my finger there and the injury got progressively worse the week leading up to True Grit. A cactus needle or some foreign object lodged into my finer and it was swollen like mad. Unable to grip my handlebar with full force, I just toughed it out in training and pre-ride. As fatigue set in during TG, the pain became overwhelming, my hand was slipping off the bar in tech sections and I was having too many close calls for comfort. Braking was becoming an issue as well.
As I was fighting for position in the top 5 after mile 50, I was lead off course by some markings on the slickrock for the trail run they were also having in the area. I climbed a 400ft jeep road that circled back to part of the trail I had already ridden. At the time, I was livid. I lost at least 20 mins. I no longer knew what place I was in. I started think about dropping out of the race at this point.
No sign of a cactus needle in my finer, just full of nasty puss :/
It's not easy to quit a race. But I quickly became at peace with my decision. This would be only the second DNF I've had in bike racing. People give you a hard time and it just isn't an easy thing to do. I didn't want to crash and ruin what I train so hard for, ruining the season before it even starts. I feel like I made the right choice. Perhaps going off course was my saving grace so I would quit, stopping me from crashing later in the race because I was too stubborn to race with a hand that couldn't hold onto the bars or apply the brake.
I am beyond pleased with my fitness. I am feeling stronger than ever. I just want to get my finger healed and continue training. True Grit was a heck of a lot of fun and I would like to come back next year! Congrats to Drew for the win and all of my friends for a great race!
