Disaster. Utter and complete disaster, at least my portion ofit. I came into the week just prior to the race in good formcompleting solid training rides the weekend before: 50- 60 mile raodrides with time gradually dropping. By Monday evening I catch a littletickle in my throat,as the race drew closer that 'tickle' hit mysinuses then my chest. I'm off the bike for the week before the race.I'm hoping my early season form will save me...the forcast forsaturdays race had been for cold and rain.As friday rolls in I'm feeling ok,not 100% but just ok. Whoknows? I was still coughing at night and had become the new poster-boyfor post nasal drip, but we'll see.Syl and I line up Saturday afternoon in last years racing kits.Several racers make comments about needing to file taxes. I shoutover "iwantarefund.com". Hopbrook MA,the clouds had parted and the airwarmed up. The course conditions were drying. It was like summer. Wehad a big field for our age group,over 35 racers, the largest of anyclass.The starting whistle blows and we jet off. Its a little hectic atthe start. Everyone wants the hole shot as the course narrows, no onewants to be caught in the bottleneck. We shoot throught the firstnarrow then reach a open area,suddenly a mountainbike rear end goes upin the air without its racer. Then you hear "what the fuck was that?what the fuck is that?" The racer had struck a 3 foot tall stonecolumn head on. Who know what it was used for, it did a job on theracer who was left on the ground in bewilderment as his dark hardtailtumbled away from him.We loop around the pond crossing up into the single track. AlreadyI can feel my head pounded and chest constricting,not in the usualfight or flight racing mode, it didn't feel right. We file into thesingle track at good clip some racers are dropping off-too technical.We approach the a small stream crossing. I pick my line: leftaround the protruding rock. BANG next thing I see is blue sky withpatchy grey clouds and water pouring over me. "what the fuckhappened?" I'm a little dazed but know enought to get and hop on thebike out of the corner of my eye I see 4 racers blow by me as Istruggle to get up, 3more go by. This is not good.I jump back on the bike. My right leg is soar. Looking downbeneath my mud covered leg I see the blood mark, you know the part ofmud thats darker than the rest. It stings like bastard! Already Ifeel it in my face. Too hot. My throat feels like its constrictingand scratchy,it was getting harder to breathe. I continue on. Sinusinfection or not I am finishing this race.A little bit later Syl passes me. I'm dropping and struggling tobreathe in race mode. It didn't feel right, like I was out of breathefor the wrong reason. A few miles later I pull over. The air hadtickled my throat and up came the powergel and water. It was lovleytree where I left my mark.I remounted and pedalled on I tried to go faster but the faster Iwent the more constricted my throat felt and the air would tickle it again and cause the heaves. I barfed 2 more time while on the bike. itsucked.I felt and in some places and pedaled as hard as my throat wouldallow me eventaully figuiring out a nice easy cadence to get methrough. I even managed to pass some racers on the climbs and flatspots. Finishing 37th overall.I raced like shit because I felt like shit. Winsted Woods is nextSunday. I'm swinging by urgent care sometime today...just to getchecked out. Syl did better than he thought he would, especially beingoff the bike for over a year becaues of some chronic knee issue. Ithinbk he finished 31st. The year before he finished 3rd.See ya at Farmington.
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