Fear and Intimidation

My good friend Jon Limbird (AKA Bird) and I raced Male Duo 40+ at the Gear Grinder 6 Hour MTB Race yesterday.   It was interesting because the race was held at a private camp near Zirconia.   Virtually no one had ridden the course prior to Friday afternoon.

We met about 3:00 PM, got our race numbers and set out for a practice lap.   WOW!!!  I don't use the word intimidation much in connection with my name but Friday night, I was intimidated.   This is another way of saying I was frightened.  Bird could see it but we did not discuss it.

We stayed the night at a wonderful cabin, owned by Amelee and John Weems, about 5 miles from the race venue.   Brandon Rudin joined us there.  Laying in bed, I remembered it was OK to be afraid…..it was not OK to stay afraid.

Saturday morning we headed for the race start.   I am never sure how I actually get passed this fear thing.  I don't use logic or argue with myself.  Mostly I visualize riding safely and easily.  I ask myself what is the worst that could happen and can I live with that?  To some extent I just 'man up', whatever that means??  and I don't think it has anything to do with being a man.   Women do it every day….in fact maybe better than us guys.

The course included a 1.2 mile steep gravel road, 7 miles of single track, about 30 sharp switchbacks and lot of moderately technical elements.   What made it hard was no one thing.  Most MTB trails have easy sections between the technical elements.  This one did not.   It was consistently moderately difficult from a technical perspective.   The roughly 3500 feet of climbing in the 25 miles (3 laps) was serious from a cardio standpoint.  It was very intense (nerve racking) because, at times, the consequences of failure were pretty serious.  In fact Hoffmonster claimed there were 500 places to 'get hurt' each lap.  Thankfully no participant was seriously injured.

All and all, it was a super event.  I would do it again in heartbeat.   I recommend it.  The support area, the course, beauty, organization, barbecue and awards were all fun.

Bird and I were 8th out of 9 teams but felt like winners by accomplishing 6 laps in 5:52…….something that seemed nearly miraculous to not only the two of us, but some of our pals in attendance.   Sometimes, just finishing safely can be a big accomplishment…….this was one of those times.

I hope that you can get through your fear if you ever run into anything like this.   For me, doing so, opened up the door to a lot joy this weekend.   Being fear-less is a lot more fun than being fear-full.

See ya out there.