hellbender, 2009 edition

I gotta say I thought I was feeling pretty good. I got a lot of rest in and only did the tuesday night crit. I actually got to a race early enough to do everything withou being rushed. The race started about a half hour behind so that didn't help my nerves out. I usually like toget going when they say it's supposed to start. I guess I hate waiting around just like anybody else. Last year I got 12th, but I was also about seven pounds lighter. My fitness was also much bettrr at this time last year. Anyways, the race was uneventful for the most part with the exceptuion of a few failed atacks. Then the one major decisive climb came. It's usually make or break on this climb. You either make it with the lead group or your chasing. I was actually towards the front at the crest of the hill, but soon faded and was falling back. I ended up in a chase group of four. I was still redlined and fell off that group and was in no-mans land. A few minutes later a freight train of about six guys came trucking past. Denny was in this group. I latched on and we attempted to bridge. This took a major effort from everyone. I was definetly the worse off in the group. I took one more pull then went to the back and soon faded. I was so close to the main group that I could've thrown a rock and hit them. I was pretty much done at that point. Another group of five riders cam by that included another teammate. I hooked up with them into the feedzone, but two quit and I had to persuade a couple guys to do anoth lap with me. I ended uup dropping my bag at the feedzone and went back to get it. Another mesa kid decided to turn around because he had no water. I had two fresh ones and gave him one. We were now four until one guy decided he'd had enough and turned aroun.. it was his first cat3 race. The three of us ended up just cruising along the rest of the way. It was aggod first lap with some good efforts put in, but in the end I just didn't quite have the gas. Now if I can just lose that extra five pounds I might be alright. Next up is the wildwood tt. I hpe my typing wasn't too bad since I did this on my g1 phone. It's not that bad typing with thumbs.