USAC MTB Nationals

I had a great time in CT with Mike, and I will write a little on that probably tomorrow, but here I will talk about my humbling experience at Nationals.

So, going into it, with good results in Michigan, I though for sure I could get a top-ten result and was seriously hoping to be on the podium- I was quite mistaken. After lots of trying to diagnose my problem, I am pretty sure I just don't have the fitness necessary to climb over 1500 feet per lap for three laps.

On Staurday, we did three laps in the XC event. It was a lot of climbing and it seemed like I was just going backwards. I was able to catch a lot of people whenever we started going downhill, because the downhill was really technical and a lot of fun, but it was not enough to make up the almost 20 minutes I lost to the winner of my class, earning me 23rd out of 35 guys.
Sunday was the Short Track event. I was really hoping to do well, because I am fairly good at pushing really hard, and there wasn't really any uphill in the course, just a couple bumps. For the first 7 minutes of the race, I was hanging out in the top 5. Then it just started getting harder and harder and some guys passed me here and there. There were points that my vision started going blurry because I was so in the red zone, but when they told us we only had three laps to go, I just pushed my body to keep going for 6 more minutes. I ended up getting 14 out 24, half a lap down on the winner. It was a slightly better result than Saturday and I was fairly happy with the result.

Mike ended up doing really well in his XC race, getting 18th out of 66 semi-pro racers, so congrats Mike. He wasn't as happy with his Short Track race, getting 30th out of 39, perhaps it was a little troublesome having a day off between the XC and STXC race.

In addition, at Windham Mtn. and at Nationals, Mike and I hung out a decent amount with some of the Bell's team, Joe and Erin, so it was cool getting to know them. Joe did really well in the semi-pro STXC, getting 8th out of 39 racers, so congrats to Joe.
It was also great meeting Mike's racing friend from last year, Nathan Pepin and his family. Thanks to them for the cheers and water bottle support at Windham Mtn and at Nationals.

Anyway, I learned a lot about myself this weekend, namely I am not as fast as I thought I was and I have a lot of work to do for the fall collegiate season and for next year for revenge at Nationals.