10 Days prior to The Original Growler Endurance Mountain Bike Race, I went down hard while blazing down a hill during a road ride. The Gravel got me. I had been nursing a severe gash on my elbow that called for stitching of the tissue as well as the skin. My plan was to wrap it, down some pain killers, grin and bear it.
The day prior to the race we went out to pre ride some of the course. The section we ventured on first was fully exposed with a nasty drop, we were WAAY up there. I started having a panic attack, hyperventilating and had a full blown meltdown right there on the trail. Apparently my arm had been recovering faster then my mind. I was having a bad mental block. So worried about crashing that I couldn't focus on riding. It was so bad I didn't think I'd be able to race. We had to double back to base camp. I sent Ryan on his way to get his pre ride on and I took some time to regroup. Eventually I ventured to another part of the race course that was not exposed. There were many features, crazy technical climbs and descents, I took my time and worked my way through them.
The next morning I decided to go for it. The plan was to just walk the obstacles I wasn't comfortable with and incorporate the brakes more on the descents and not get upset about it. Anna Ganju once told me, "better to walk away and be able to bike another day" As the race rolled on I found myself in a few different trains and was able to watch those in front on how they handled certain techy sections, and was able to clear the majority of the boulder climbs and descents. I was happy with how my Niner and I handled. Bike just rolled right over everything. I took it easy on the descents, pushed the opens and maintained a solid pace on the climbs, making sure I had enough in the tank to be able to power through the technical sections with confidence. The course was gorgeous and super fun. I came out of the race smiling like the happy, dirty, little Diva I am. I managed 37 miles, 4,500 ft of climbing in 3hrs and 40 minutes. Toughest course I've ever ridden.
I'll be working on my head game over the next couple of weeks in hopes that the fear will subside as I prepare for some of the major Wisconsin Off Road races coming up. If you take a nasty fall, take your time in coming back. It's ok to rely on the brakes for a couple months until you get your mojo back.
