Queen City & Show-Me State Games

Saturday I went with Jeremy down to Springfield for the Queen City Criteriums. We met up with the Springfield Crew and set up the course. I raced the Masters race at 7:50pm and then the P/1/2/3 race at 9pm. I felt pretty decent in both races, interesting I haven't done a criterium since 1993.

After the race we cleaned up the course and headed off to Brackett's house at about 12:00-12:30am. Finally to bed about 1:00 and then back up at 5:30am to drive up to Columbia for the Show-Me State Games MTB marathon race.

I thought I was feeling okay. At least I didn't seem too tired or lethargic. Au contraire, as soon as we started the race I was redlining. I was struggling to keep up with guys I have put time on in recent races. Not much you can do in such a situation but settle in and hope for things to improve.

Jeremy Bradshaw jumped out to an early lead on the first lap with Nate Means leading Paul Krewet and I. Towards the end of the first lapped I crashed hard when a big root popped one of my hands off the bars and sent me sprawling superman-style. It was an awkward fall and I landed badly on my hand/fingers. I'll be nursing my middle finger for the next couple weeks trying to get some grip strength back before Rapture in Misery. So I slowly collected myself and made sure everything seemed okay. I got underway and gradually started to brush it off.

I got back up to speed and just settled into a rhythm I figured I could hold until the end. If I caught everyone great, if not, well, then not.

I came through the first lap in 3rd, having caught Nate Means close to the end of the lap. Paul Krewet was about 10 seconds ahead of me and Jeremy Bradshaw another 10 in front of him. I caught Paul a couple miles into the 2nd lap and every once and awhile I'd catch a glimpse of Jeremy. When we hit the open fields I could see he was close and not pulling away so I relaxed a little. I figured I didn't need to put the hammer down to catch him immediately, but rather just let him know I was still there and not letting him relax into a comfortable pace.

At the end of lap 2 he was still about 15 seconds ahead. It seemed like I was making up time on the first part of the lap and losing a little on the second part. Probably I was making time on the uphills and losing it on the downhills. Finally I caught him in the open fields on lap 3 and put some pressure on the uphill sections. Through the start/finish I had put 10+ seconds on him and it seemed like he was tiring. I just kept it steady and the gap stretched out from there. Unfortunately I had no chance at making 6 laps, so I just rolled it steady through to the finish. The gap stretched to 1:20 at the end of lap 4 and 5:00 at the end of lap 5.

I was pretty tired by the end. I especially was hurting on the drive home! Basically I can no longer function on 4-5 hrs of sleep. Somehow I rallied and Gina and I went to see The Wailers and Toots & the Maytals at Grinders--we even got the tickets for free! Cool show, it was a good thing we had chairs...