8 Hours of Temecula; January 29 2022

 The Good Pain

January 29, 2022,

    I wake up at 5:30 in the morning in hopes to be ready and leave for the venue at 6:30. However, I didn't leave until about 20 minutes after I was hoping, due to my cooking error while making pancakes. We pulled up to the venue at around 7:10ish and we parked just along the side of the finishing straight. This was so that I didn't have to venture far to get my food and water. I was able to register and pick up my number plate the day before, so I put my number on my bike and by then I had about an hour and fifteen minutes until my start. To stay warm before the race, I sat in my car and scrolled around Instagram. About thirty minutes before my start, I got myself kitted up and tossed on all my equipment in time for the mandatory rider meeting at 8:45 (race starts at 9). I sat on the fourth of six rows and I was looking around for my competition. When my eyes set on the Marathon National Champion, Brian McCullough. "Ouch", I thought. I knew the one thing I would have to do was hang on for dear life until it was time to set my own pace. Or in other words, "stick like poop", as my Coach Jason Ranoa used to say. 

   The race began and I somehow managed to pass four rows of riders in two corners, putting me right behind Brian. It started off decent with about five riders leading which quickly escalated to three: Me, Brian, and Bear Development rider, Blake Wray (Blake was racing a different category, but he was still chilling with us). After about three laps, I started to struggle a bit, specifically with descending. I was riding a 27.5 in. hard-tail bike with a Lauf fork. So to say I didn't have much suspension was an understatement. We started up a fire road climb, and the pace was high. When the three of us branched off into the next trail. I started to fall behind a bit, leaving the perfect time for me to strike a rock with my pedal, unclipping my left foot on my way up a climb. This was the last thing that happened before getting dropped. Looking back now, most of the next couple of laps were a blur and I do not remember it hardly at all. I do remember that lap seven I had my dad check results and found out I was in fourth, about ten minutes behind the third-place rider. lap eight, I got caught by Brian again. Which was no surprise because he was moving abnormally fast. From there, my next couple laps I did not remember very well. However, on lap twelve, I rode by my dad with about an hour and a half left of the race. I heard him say, "you've got time for one lap." After looking at the time, I realized "No I don't. I have time for two laps." At that point, I began to ramp up my pace. I made it one lap and saw that I had around forty minutes until the end of the race. That was the most painful lap I rode the whole day. However, it was a good kind of pain. I knew my body was going to be sore, but it also meant I was getting stronger. 

    I finished the final lap with about twelve to fifteen minutes to spare. The last lap brought my position from fourth to third of eight riders in my category. I finished fourteen laps, giving me an accumulative distance of 102.9 miles. I was super happy with this result especially with the people I raced. This is a great start to this year and I look forward to more races in the 2022 season.