Mountain Bike Racing- I'm still wondering why

My bike odometer reads 3.71 miles, but I’ve already passed the halfway point and this course is supposed to be 14 miles long. Fourteen miles is pretty far for me, especially this early in the season. My goal has been to make it to category two, or the sport class this season, but the thought of having to race 28 miles confirms to me that I should stay novice- at least a little while longer.

I know—pathetic-- you may think. But I’ll tell you what- I just love mountain biking. I love it. I love it. I love it. And turns out I think racing mountain bikes is pretty darned fun too.

Fun enough that I am suffering through 14 miles of—way more hills than I remember. Fun enough that I’ve smeared gu across my face and then kept the empty, chocolatey wrapper in my pocket all in an attempt to keep from bonking.

So here is some video of the finish. I’m scooting through pretty fast because I have the next girl in my category hot on my tail—the video doesn’t show this—but I think she came in like 10 seconds behind me.

At the end of this race, heck through the entire race, I kept wondering why the heck do I do this to myself? Let me tell you--- it is not the prettiest this mountain bike racing thing.

Now as I write this though, I’m counting down the days to the next race.