V

Today, I raced a mountain bike for the very first time and I had quite a lot of fun doing it. It was a 2 lap, 11.6 mile event and I was racing the beginner class (Cat5). Since I've never raced in the woods before and didn't really know what I was doing I just wanted to go along for the ride, no expectations, no nerves. Racing without nerves (at least until I was on the line) is the way to go and I have to figure out how to do this on the road. Rebecca yelled "go" and we were off. My first two pedal strokes were weak but I was in the lead by my 4th stroke. I wanted the holeshot because the bridge a few hundred meters after the start line was slick. I hit the singletrack first and rode cautiously fast-ish. The trail was covered in leaves after the week's rain and wind, it was cold, and I wasn't all that interested in crashing since I was leading. One of my competitors was better at riding technical trails and was catching me in the "hard" section. I proceeded to take a wrong turn, and when I looked back he was going the other way. I turned around and thanked the cycling gods when the trail opened up and was conducive to fast riding. I rode like mad to catch him and finally did about 10 or 15 minutes after he passed me. I was content to ride behind him and recover for about a half mile. I made the pass and just rode my race. On lap 2 I almost took the same blasted wrong turn, but I stopped and made sure I was going the wrong way. There were some times during that lap where I wanted to slow down since I was pretty sure I had a good lead, but it was a race so I made sure to keep pressure on the pedals. Crossing the line first was an amazing feeling and I raised my arms in celebration. Then I put my finger to my lips in a "shhh" sign (stolen from soccer) because it's about time I silence those internal gremlins questioning if I can win a bike race.
My winnings were $40 worth of gift cards to Cycle Center, my first actual win, and the title of "Sandbagger", guess I'll race the next category up when I do another MTB race.