My big goal for the year was to win the State Championship. I set this goal over a year ago, and trained hard from August to November with this in mind. The week of the race however was stressful at work, both my kids were sick, and I had to get on a plane a couple of hours after the race to fly across the country!
Once the training is done, and race day comes, it truly is a mental game. Typically I try to focus on the race, the course, and those things that I can control. The Sunday of the race, I listened to some motivating music, and started to visualize what it would be like to win. When I got to the course I pre-rode it a couple of times, and got in a nice, hot warm up effort before hitting the start line. When the gun went off, I slotted into 3rd going into the grass, but unfortunately one of the riders in front of me went down and I plowed into him on the first run up! I was a little bloody and half-way down the pack. I battled back to the front, before sliding out a second time and ending up back in 3rd place. Pretty good right? I was following Josh Whitmore when he went down, then flatted. At this time, Eric Marland accelerated and pulled away by about 5 seconds . . .
I got into my own head and the negative thoughts started to flow, "You worked 70 hours this week, of course you are tired." "Second place isn't so bad at the State Championships." "Eric is strong, his kids are here, he deserves to win."
NO! Around lap 6 of 9 I changed my mind (just check out the lap times: http://www.charlottemtnbike.com/NC_ChampionshipsLapTimes.pdf) I decided that I wasn't going to get second, OR third, since Todd Hunter was breathing down my neck at 5 seconds! I started thinking "I can win this . . . Stay smooth . . . Go faster through the turns, no braking!" I started to claw my way back, and I took 20s out of the leader on the second to last lap, and another 15 on the last lap when I caught Eric halfway through! I could hear the announcer getting excited and I felt better and better. As soon as we hit the pavement on the backside of the course I attacked with everything I had, getting a big gap and holding it to the line! If you look at my lap times, the last lap was my fastest. I let all the emotion out as I crossed the line:
This was perhaps my most satisfying win of the year, as I accomplished my goal, but only after seeing it almost slip away from me. I also proved to myself that I had the mental capacity to hit bottom and still come back!
No comments:
Post a Comment