The Dirt Field

I was excited about Snotcycle. It was a race at a time of year in which I’m not generally racing and was an opportunity to leave the off-season stupor, fill my car with race day necessities, and wake up with butterflies and a desire to make other people cry with my bicycle. I even brought my trainer to the race to guarantee a proper warmup.

HA!

The race started and 500 yards later, we were off our bikes and trudging through deep snow. Over five miles later, we were still off our bikes. My calves were screaming, I had been passed by two women in my category who were better at running with their bikes, and the best I could do was jog along and periodically try riding before tumbling off several yards later.  The snow was somewhat packed down by the second lap and allowed for significantly more riding, but with a lot of crashing interspersed. I wasn’t alone; people around me dropped like flies, feet flying over handlebars, bodies flopping sideways into the snow.

At the end, I carried my bike across the finish line.

Now that I’m home, thawed, drugged, and medicated with beer and coffee, I can say I’m glad I did it and actually finished. My philosophy on DNFing is that if you are not in imminent danger of dying, you keep going. If you start vomiting blood on the course, you first measure how much blood before deciding to quit. If your bike breaks irreparably, then you don’t DNF unless your feet have broken as well and you cannot drag the bike to the finish. All kidding aside, unless something is truly wrong, I don’t quit, because once I start quitting just because the race is tough, then how do I ever decide to stick it out? It’s fine if you don’t share this same thinking; I know a lot of people are out there just to have fun and will pull the plug if they’re not. That’s cool, as long as it makes you happy and works for you. I just need to know that quitting is not an option to get the best performance out of my legs and mind.

So I finished today, which was probably stupid since running with a bike in the snow is not high on the list of recovery activities recommended by my physical therapist and orthopedic doctor. (Listening to medical advice is not high on MY list, especially when medicine thus far has not been very useful in solving my back situation.) Having completed the race feels satisfying, even if it was brutal and frequently miserable; at least the 2011 racing season began with a steadfast refusal to quit.

It was great to see everyone out there today. Crazy people who are willing to hang out in the snow because of biking are the best.