The Devil will have his Due

Its funny (well, funny to me that is). There is so much info about the Creek race these days. Its a huge tribute to the competitors, the age of information and probably the spirit of helping future competitors out. You can surf around the blogs and find recap after recap on each stage of the race, nutrition, weather, sag support.. Pretty much anything you can think about, except maybe the most important thing to me. The mindset of the racer.

You'll either find 1. a successful recap of the race and its components 2. a reason for a DNF. And I understand the DNF, however I will forever side with Floyd Landis (on not finishing). "Everybody wants to say, 'I couldn't win because of this or that,' " he says. "To my way of thinking, it doesn't matter if your gd head fell off or your legs exploded. If you didn't make it, you didn't make it. One excuse is as good as another."

Which is why I say the devil will have his due. I realized very early in my rookie race that 1. I didn't know how mental ultra races can be 2. I had done a ton of physical training and zero mental training. I finished that race, albeit by turning myself inside out and totally disregarding my health and well being.

So what I'm trying to say: These races damn near kill you. They are hell in the making. The pressure of making time checks (maximizing the most of weather in your favor and/or minimizing its adverse side).

And it will be equal slices from your hyde, mind and spirit. 500 miles is a long way to race. 100% weather exposure. 100% your ass to get the job done. No excuses. Most rides leaving me mentally proclaiming my retirement from the sport all the way to the finish line.

Almost two weeks later and I'm still so tired. Mentally unfocused. Beat. I ride with the boys and the most basic training leaves me so drained. No good deed goes unpunished. No ultra will go without the "backside beating".

So my point, and a huge focus in returning to this race in 2008. First thing I did was seek out a sport psychologist, and what a gift she was. A former pro racer who consults with a ton of pro bike racers (although I think this was her first experience with ultra racers). She helped me a ton with crafting defense strategies against the tricks our minds play on us. I'll take time in my next post to articulate some of my strategies that really helped in preparation and execution of this year's performance.