The first race of the NIMBA series was held Sunday at Bendix Woods. This mountain bike trail is in New Carlisle, Indiana. It is approximately 6.5 miles of twisting trails. Although the largest visible hill is on the pavement crossing, I swear the majority of trail is deceptively on inclines! We were both racing sport so we had two laps to do.
We arrived a good hour before the race and it was 40 degrees, dark rain clouds and windy. Little did I know, it would be sunny and 60 when we finished. I dressed as if I was doing the Iceman wearing my normal team kit, under armor, coat, long pants etc…I was still shivering! I quickly recognized my competition; she was warming up on the side trails as I was warming up in the jeep.
Before my 10:20 start time, I forced myself to spin those legs getting about two miles in. I was still freezing so did not opt to take any layers off. This was a time trial race. At the start I was very intimidated by the girl who was taking off behind me, she was doing jumping jacks, full of energy and singing along to the music. Considering the fact that I have only been exercising my brain and possibly had 50 miles on my wheels the past 3 months…I was regretting the beating she was about to deliver. I took off not knowing where the other girls were but thought this girl was taking off 30 seconds behind me. By mid lap, the sun came out and I was overheating. I unzipped it all but could not pull coat off with the camel back strapped to me. At this point, I was wishing I wore those arm warmers, which would have been easy to slip down. While I was riding, I was trying to figure out how far back the girl was. I picked locations and counted the seconds that I would see someone hit it, but didn’t at all the first lap. I assumed I was in the lead so when I dropped my gu packet, I quickly stopped to pick it up. At that time, I should have taken off a layer but did not want to waste that much time. I eventually heard her on trail, I knew she wasn’t far behind, I tried to take off my gloves while riding and slip them in the pocket. Sadly, I dropped one and weighed my options, a $45 Pearl Izumi glove, or a $25 race. I stopped and picked up the glove. It was not long after, she caught me! Any other time I would have fought for it but I was toasted/roasted/depleted… I told her how awesome she was and allowed her easy access to pass. At the end of it all, there were only three girls preregistered for the Sport class. I came in second.
Here is Dwight going through the rock garden like a pro… and then there is me, doing the rookie move looking down.
Oh and about Dwight…his start time was just 15 minutes before mine and when I reached the above rock section, he was actually on the the return trail next to me! At the start he had concerns about not changing the gearing on his single speed, but already seeing him there, I knew he made it work! He came in first place, beating his competition by 1:02! Unlike me, he was still full of energy and actually wanted to ride the course again before we went home!
And as you can imagine…
