Sunday was the start of the race season for me with the first H2H of the year, Shazam! I won the Cat 1 45+ class on my SS.
Normally by mid April I'd have at least 4 races in but with March being what it was I got more xc skiing in since races were cancelled due to snow. This was somewhat bittersweet since I've raced short track at Allamuchy for at least the last 6 years in March, however I did manage to meet up with Paul on the groomed ski trails in March. One door closes another opens.
I've ridden with Paul on and off over the years, I believe he lived near Utah (the verbose talker, not the state) at one point and through this connection I'd bump into him on occasion. He moved out west and lived in Tahoe for awhile where he took up xc ski racing. It was good to hook up with him on the trails at High Point, while I've been skiing for about 15 yrs, he taught me some different techniques to ski faster and thus work harder. I guess you could say skiing with Paul on wknds in March was my short track racing.
The H2H made a lot of changes to the race series, the one that effected me was consolidation of Cat1 & Cat 2 SS class. The idea of grouping more people into a class was ok but changing the length of racing to a Cat 2 distance was not something I was interested in. As a Cat 1 racer this would be taking a step backwards. A lot of other guys I race SS with felt the same way, initially we planned to line up in pro class on our SS's, this way we could all still race each other despite being different ages(under 45 and 45+). Kirt talked me out of this and I'm glad he did, it was a dumb idea. In reality it would be too discouraging to get blown away by pro riders. While I wanted to line up with the same SS guys I did in previous years, it was time for a change, so I decided to race my SS in 45+ class. One door closes another opens.
The night before the race, I lay awake thinking about everything that could go wrong the next day. Despite knowing that I shouldn't focus on the negative it's hard not to be nervous about the unknown. These thoughts can be enough to drive people away from competition, the relatively brief amount of time spent racing is like cramming 10 yrs of life into 1:30 hrs. It's intense but once the gun goes off you do your thing and there is no place for negative thoughts to get into your head. I was surprised at how well I did and was ecstatic to win in a field of mountain bikers that has always been ahead of me. I don't know how I'll do in the remaining races but I do know there will be excellent competition , which is all that really matters.
Normally by mid April I'd have at least 4 races in but with March being what it was I got more xc skiing in since races were cancelled due to snow. This was somewhat bittersweet since I've raced short track at Allamuchy for at least the last 6 years in March, however I did manage to meet up with Paul on the groomed ski trails in March. One door closes another opens.
I've ridden with Paul on and off over the years, I believe he lived near Utah (the verbose talker, not the state) at one point and through this connection I'd bump into him on occasion. He moved out west and lived in Tahoe for awhile where he took up xc ski racing. It was good to hook up with him on the trails at High Point, while I've been skiing for about 15 yrs, he taught me some different techniques to ski faster and thus work harder. I guess you could say skiing with Paul on wknds in March was my short track racing.
The H2H made a lot of changes to the race series, the one that effected me was consolidation of Cat1 & Cat 2 SS class. The idea of grouping more people into a class was ok but changing the length of racing to a Cat 2 distance was not something I was interested in. As a Cat 1 racer this would be taking a step backwards. A lot of other guys I race SS with felt the same way, initially we planned to line up in pro class on our SS's, this way we could all still race each other despite being different ages(under 45 and 45+). Kirt talked me out of this and I'm glad he did, it was a dumb idea. In reality it would be too discouraging to get blown away by pro riders. While I wanted to line up with the same SS guys I did in previous years, it was time for a change, so I decided to race my SS in 45+ class. One door closes another opens.
The night before the race, I lay awake thinking about everything that could go wrong the next day. Despite knowing that I shouldn't focus on the negative it's hard not to be nervous about the unknown. These thoughts can be enough to drive people away from competition, the relatively brief amount of time spent racing is like cramming 10 yrs of life into 1:30 hrs. It's intense but once the gun goes off you do your thing and there is no place for negative thoughts to get into your head. I was surprised at how well I did and was ecstatic to win in a field of mountain bikers that has always been ahead of me. I don't know how I'll do in the remaining races but I do know there will be excellent competition , which is all that really matters.
