My first race

I raced in the Gardner Canyon Grind in Sonoita, Arizona this past weekend. Ok, so this didn't go very well. No really, that isn't just me saying that, I really did poorly. I raced in the Sport 30-39 group.  My group started 2 minutes ahead of the next group to go.  Technically we should have been faster and the reason we started sooner is so that the group behind us wasn't slowing us down.

After about 2 minutes of racing I think I was about 3 minutes behind the rest of the field.  After about 2 minutes and 13 seconds the majority of the group behind me passed me.  Not sure how that happened, I think I was in a time warp, yea, time warp, that explains it.

I went out there this weekend to have a great time.  I did.  I went out there to finish. I did.  I went out there to validate my nutrition strategy for longer events.  I failed miserably.  Ok, not really, I validated that I have no idea how much food I need per 30 minutes on the trail, so I succeeded, but not exactly how I planned to.  Back to the drawing board on that one.  Not an excuse, but I didn't do myself any favors when I went on a 3 hour bike ride the day before the race.  Not a great idea but I knew that and it all works out in the end, I accomplished what I set out to do.

The Pivot did fantastic.  As happens with nearly every new bike, the cables that control the shifting stretched.  Unfortunately they did this about half way through the race.  I had to stop and adjust the shifters and that was when the 60 year old passed me.  I never saw him again.  

That made me sad.

All in all a great time.  I am now attempting to put the bike back together.  I think the roughness of the trail actually loosened every single bolt.  I am going through and checking them one by one.  I found one that might have been responsible for some of my shifting woes.

Or it could be that I suck.  I think I will go with that answer.