First MTB race experience

[bellissima]

Congrats! And welcome to the races

[Aggie_Ama]

Congratulations on the podium! I raced Warda too (I'm Cat 2), I have never raced anything so cold and your race had sleet. Pre-riding is definitely a great idea, I don't ride any course blind unless I have rode there before and know nothing has changed. I didn't pre-ride Comfort because I raced the marathon there less than a month ago and knew it well. They have the course permanently marked there so nothing changes and Pace Bend is the same way. At Huntsville in the fall I firmly believe the fact that I had pre-rode the course and memorized it helped me beat a couple women, I knew where to attack and where I was in the course to gauge my efforts. One of the women is my teammate and she said she was lost because it all looked the same and she had no clue what was ahead or how much further to go.

Women always pretty much get screwed on warming up, I use mine just to loosen up. I know I will be cold by the race, good thing is most your competitors will be too as you stated.

[Loraura]

Well, I've now completed my second race and still loving it. Here's my race report for Mellow Johnny's Classic - 3/3/2012.

I wasn't MTBing back when this location was previously open to mountain biking, so I'd never ridden or even seen the trails. There was a lot of talk in the local MTB community about how difficult the trails were in the past, so I decided I'd burn some of my stock-piled PTO and do as much pre-riding as possible.

I pre-rode the course on the Thursday preceeding the race, doing 2 laps. I probably would have only done one lap, but I ran into a team-mate after my first lap, so rode it again with her. I'm glad I did. It definately was difficult for me. Lots of hike-a-bike. The shoes I prefer to race in were NOT hike-a-bike friendly, so right away I knew I needed to use different shoes to race in. Something with a rubbery sole rather than a hard plastic one would be much better.

Parts of the trail were down right demoralizingly difficult for me. BUT... I have no issue running a portion I can't ride, so my plan was to figure out what those sections were so I had a plan on race day.

I went home Thursday very tired and stiff and mentally worried about the course.

Friday I returned to the ranch to volunteer for race set-up. I ended up unloading quite a bit of heavy stuff and setting up water monters and a bajillion tables. This alone was enough to make me sore. After 4 hours of manual labor, I went out to pre-ride again.

I was hot, tired, worn out, sunburned, and dehydrated BEFORE I started.

The pros were also out doing hot laps at race pace and it was frankly terrifying to have them all go absolutely FLYING past. The trails were crowded on Friday. I'm glad I got a good ride in on Thursday.

I ended up bailing halfway through and not completing the whole loop. I knew I would not be able to recover before Saturday (race day) if I continued. This did not help my confidence level at all!

Race day arrived and I was naseous and had trouble getting any food down.

I got there in plenty of time to warm up a bit and line up at the start. I was physically nervous, which doesn't usually happen to me. To my utter delight, there were only 3 racers in my cat/class who were brave enough to show up! Everyone who finished was garanteed a podium spot. Fantastic! No pressure at all.

So off we go. I had a bit of a clip in wobble at the beginning, so not my best start. The other 2 in my cat were simply faster than me on the lead up to the single track. When I decided I wouldn't be catching them, I just settled in and rode my ride. My goal was simply to finish, uninjured.

To my delight, the course seemed much easier than on the pre-rides. Maybe it was the adrenaline, or just the fact that it was the 2nd or 3rd time seeing the course. Either way, I rode better on the race than I did on any of my pre-ride laps.

There was a ton of climbing on this race. I'm not a fast climber at all. In fact, more often than not I'm a terrible climber. I was passed by a rider from another cat on the climbs, but she was a timid decender, and even stopped and bailed halfway down some of the decents. This was killing me, becuase I am a pretty good decender, and knew I could ride them all.

After the second mid-decent bail out, I worked it out with her so that she could pass me on climbs if she liked, but I'd be passing her before the following decents. Didn't take long till I didn't see her again.

I loved that there was a good crowd for this race. This was a UCI Pro race, so the pros like Georgia Gould, Catherine Pendrel, Katie Compton, and Emily Batty were there. The crowds were great! Lots of cowbells and cheering all along the course.

I finished feeling strong, in 3rd place, uneventfully. Hey, another podium, another trophy! I can't complain. 3rd sounds better than last, so that's my story and I'm sticking with it!

I did find it less fun having so few competitors. I had no incentive to ride at race-pace after I'd been dropped by the two leaders. Maybe that was a blessing on this difficult course. I had all the room in the world to pick lines and no pressure to ride above my abilities.

My husband raced with the men, and he was frustrated that there were so MANY contestants that even though HE could ride many of the technical portions, there were pileups of others walking and so he had no choice but to get off and walk as well.

Overall I'm very happy that I raced this race, and look forward to my next race.

Before I race again I'm attending a Betterride clinic (www.betterride.net) and hope very much that I gain some new technical abilities that allow me to clean more sections of technical trail.

[tealtreak]

Thanks for posting this- I have been trying to decide if I should do my first race- there is a new local one that appeals to me.........but........(lots of buts) the fact that you still enjoyed it and are looking forward to more is heartening! My main concern is there is no way I can preride.........and I am technically weak- though a beast climber (for my age)..which is part of my hesitation- for beginner woman it is simply 35+ ..NO slack for being 50 like in running races!

[Loraura]

I've now completed my 3rd race in the series, the GHORBA Big Ring Challenge.

This course is the least technical of, well, of pretty much any trail I've ridden. It's very narrow and curvy, with a million corners and trees, but there are no tecnical features, and very little climbing.

I had high hopes going into this race knowing that I could handle the course.

I pre-rode the course with my husband and my 15 year old the day prior to the race. Unfortinately, my 15 year old didn't really have the fitness and decided to whine for half the ride. This meant I was more focused on keeping him going than the actual trail, and didn't get to practice anything "at speed". Lesson learned! Don't try to combine a family ride with a race pre-ride.

Sadly, the water there did not sit well with my tummy and caused me some ... er.... issues all evening. Let's just say I was battling dehydration long before the race started!

So I showed up ready to race, not just show up. I hoped to do well, and take a podium spot. If any course of the series were suited to me, this one was it. Unfortinately, it was apparently also well suited to a lot of other people!

The lead up to the single track was short. I knew the jump off the line would be important. So I lined up next to a girl who tends to win, and my plan was to stay on her wheel.

The whistle blew, and 20 seconds later, I was on to plan B....

I should have practiced the start. If I had, I would have known what gear to be in. As it was, I was in way too easy of a gear, and needed to shift up many times, causeing me to lose her wheel right away.

I'm noting a trend of losing races in the first 30 seconds...

Also the younger girls start at the same time as the 40+ women. We don't compete against each other, but we start together. This has caused me problems twice now. There is one little gal imparticular who is quite fast on smooth, straight lead outs. Then she hits the single track, gets nervous/sketchy and slows down.

She managed to hit the single track 2 in front of me, and immediately slowed down causing a gap between the ladies in front of her, and everyone she beat to the ST.

There was a bit of yelling going on, and we finally managed to pass her a minute or two later. By this time, the lead group was no where in sight. The trail was very narrow and heavily wooded, so passing was not easy. This didn't really set a good tone for the race for me. 5 minutes into the race I was in chase mode, and a little ticked off, trying to take back the gap.

I probably should have just settled into my pace, but instead I continued going out too hard. I usually try to have the first 25% of a race feel fairly easy (after the start). Not this time. I was going out full speed ahead. So.... as you can probably guess, I pretty much blew up by mile 4. This made the last half of the race a suffer-fest for me.

I did pass quite a few people from other cats/classes, which is always encouraging. Is it bad that I take a little bit of secret joy from passing guys who started way before I did? If I saw someone ahead, I chased them down hoping they were someone in my cat. No such luck, though.

At mile 4 there is a nice swoopy rythym section through the woods that I really enjoy. It took till this point for me to finally settle in.

Going out so hard, and feeling stressed the whole time trying to make up a gap caused me some physical issues. Mainly, my left hand went numb. Near the end of the race it was completely numb and painful, even though I tried to take every chance I had to shake it out and return the blood flow. I'm not sure if it was just me stressing, so much cornering, or new gloves, but I've never had that much trouble with my hands before. It was very distracting, and definately took away from my focus and concentration. I need to figure out what caused that and cure it ASAP.

In the last 2 miles I passed two more guys who decided I was a nice wheel to follow. At first it made me nervous that I shouldn't have passed them, and they would just need to pass me now, but they were content to sit on my wheel. This helped me go a bit faster, I'm sure.

I still managed to finish strong and sprint across the line. The finish was quite interesting... the finish line was about 30 yards beyond a sand volleyball court. So everyone sprints out of the single track into a pit of sand and fishtails like crazy. Quite entertaining for spectators. I did swerve a good bit, but maintained control, and used the technique I learned from Betterride to try to give my rear wheel the most traction, and just not try to change direction in the sand.

I finished a disapointing 5th out of 12.

Only disapointing becuase I really wanted 3rd or better.

The good part, though is that I have cut my deficit to the leader in half from the start of the season. Where I was coming in 15 minutes behind the winners, yesterday I was only 8 minutes behind. I'll call that progress and take it!

[limewave]

Every race is a learning experience! I can't believe you have 3 races in already!?!? Of course, in MI the trails usually aren't ready to race on until May. It sounds like you are improving and gaining a lot of valuable experience.

[Anelia]

Loraura, it's wonderful that you consider your mistakes every time you ride. It will help you go better and better every time. Don't be disappointed. There are many races ahead of you. You will learn and hit the podium.
I think you are doing just great