25:57 That was my time today at the Town Run Practice Time Trial Race. Not bad for someone who just got his Mountain Bike in April and had not pinned a number to my Jersey in 17 years or so. I finished the event 17th out of 55 riders, I am actually pretty stoked not to be at the bottom of the list. While the winner today finished just outside of 21 minutes, I believe he beat the next closest person by a 1:30, I felt that my top 20 finish was very respectable and I probably should have shaved around 40 or 45 seconds of my time by just choosing better lines to follow thru the course.
The enviorment for any type of bike race is great, even if you are a non-competing bystander you can feel the excitement in the air, but I have always enjoyed the atmosphere that surrounds mountain bike races. Mountain bikes are always so laid back and welcoming of newcomers or strangers to their sport. I have gone to Town Run a handful of times, but this was my first interaction with anyone from HMBA (Hoosier Mountain Bike Association.) I was running a bit late today getting to Town Run 10 minutes before we were to start (this is a mortal sin in Road racing.) I grabbed my bike went Paul who was signing riders in, I started to apologize for being late, Paul just looked at my and said "Practice Race, don't worry about it No worries." A couple of other riders rod up to where I was standing and started talking to me about the race, about bikes, about the results of the last practice race, while we were talking I noticed that I had not been late at all almost half the field showed up after me.
Paul came around and explained the rules and the start order and then he began sending riders off into the woods. I had been pretty nervous driving over to Town Run but now I seemed strangely relaxed and ready to ride my bike. After about 30 riders had gone before me it was my turn, Paul gave me the signal and I was off bobbing and weaving though the woods roller coaster like trail. The trail is a very nice moderately technical single track that has a sweet Cedar banked 180 degree turn that takes me back to my track cycling days. There are also a couple of wooden obstacles and some sweet little drops that gets the adrenaline pumping. We could not ride the whole south loop, so the course was just under 6 miles.
After my effort, after I had caught my breath and downed about 2 liters of water, I hung out on the picnic tables to wait for the final results. It was alot of fun hanging with the riders and hearing their stories and laughing at their jokes. I am definatly going to participate in the next race that I can, I just hope that I can improve on my 17th place.
oh yeah Happy Birthday Dan!!!
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