Curse of the Otter

Sea Otter 2010 is a wrap and coincidentally I haven't had that poor of a race since Sea Otter 2009. 2009 I know was the heat- 2010- well yeah it was still warm but not hot- but I felt just as crummy- or worse. Maybe I'm allergic to the place! I am sick now so maybe that was part of it. Just an off day I guess. Gotta take the good days with the bad. It was a pretty pathetic effort though. I moved up for 3/4 of a lap then backwards for the rest of the race.

On to the course- five three mile laps for a total of 15 miles, 40% on pavement, 55% dirt road, maybe 5% singletrack. With 2000' of climbing for the whole race I'd call it darn close to flat with a few short steep climbs. No climbs over say 1 minute or so, all ridden in the 42 tooth ring even by me who was blown sky high at the end of the race. I imagine the leaders were pushing monster gears up those.

I know a shorted course is better for spectators and therefore ultimately better for racers but they at least need to run a race long enough to call it a cross country. 1 hour 23 minutes for the win is hardly an xc. That's like summer cyclocross. I guess one more lap would have been more proper, 2 more maybe... though then I would have been teetering dangerously close to being pulled.

Ben said it well when he said that when you are feeling good you can do any course well and like it. When you aren't you can't ride any course and it sucks. Well I was feeling like garbage and that sure did suck!

On to the next...