I don't really know the sequence of events, but the end result was that my 6-hours of Warrior Creek was over before I ever completed a lap.
It was the best prepared I'd ever been for the 6-hour race.
Because of my late season injuries last year, I was on good form early this year having already done well in 2 previous 6-hour races.
I took off work Friday to prepare for Saturday's race.
I got extra sleep to ensure complete recovery.
All the graphs said I was peaking for a great performance.
I woke up 1/2 an hour before my alarm clock went off. Checked my pulse: comfortably low. Race ready.
I had meticuloudly gone over every nut and bolt on my bike. Race ready.
At the start line, I was one of the first on the grid.
I got a great start and immediately fell into a comfortably fast pace. The trail was in excellent shape and I was rolling. Flowing. Smooth, The weather was perfect.
I guess I hit my head somewhere after mile marker 5. I don't remember much. I hit something. Someone landed on me. My tire was flat and it hurt to stand on my left leg. It's one of those crashes where you don't just hop back on your bike and put the hammer down before the soreness sets in.
The front tire was flat because the valve stem was broken. I put a tube in at a not-too-rapid pace. I waited for a place to fall in with the constantly-passing traffic. But my left leg just couldn't pedal. I was done.
I hiked the bike (slowly) from the trail to the road and spun lightly back to the pits, slowly and gently loaded everything up and headed home. It's hard to DNF on a beautiful day, a beautiful race day. A beautiful race day on some super fun trails. It's going to be evn harder to spend the time off the bike to recover and heal.
But I will.
And I'll race again, Lord willing!
Thanks to all who offered their help today, it was greatly appreciated!!!
See you on the trails! ...hopefully soon.
