Decisions

When I found out that the DINO Versailles race was postponed from July 26 to August 1, I was fairly certain that Adam and I were the only racers in the state who weren't negatively impacted. While I felt genuinely bad for some people who were in the same position that I was in prior to the postponement, mostly I just watched the drama unfold with mild amusement while I contemplated my decision as to where I would race this weekend.

I won't lie and say that I wasn't disappointed about the possibility of missing the Versailles race when I found out that it conflicted with Adam's family reunion. I'm pretty hungry for competition right now, because I've been working hard all summer and I'm really hoping to net a small victory in the near future. It doesn't have to be a literal victory; I just want a chance to beat someone I've never beaten before. Preferably it would be someone who's beaten me in the past and would serve as a indicator of progress. It's been quite some time since I've had that thrill.

I cooked up a sweet metaphor about this involving the greatest movie ever, Summer Catch, but in the interest of getting to the point, I'll spare you for now.

The point is that the more races I do in the near future, the greater the chance that something cool happening before the season ends. A month ago, I was having to trim down my race schedule to make room for actual training, but as life happened, I ended up trimming both the training and the racing. Not ideal, but sometimes it's unavoidable and I'm pretty happy with how I've soldiered through the last few weeks.

So when it came down to the choice of DRT vs. DINO for this weekend, it was a tougher decision than it looked like on the surface. Yes, the DRT event had the advantage in almost every category (including letting you stand on a box), but I couldn't help but wonder if the DINO event would give me a better shot at head-to-head competition. Unfortunately, I can't count on knowing who will show up at either race.

After much consideration and some discussion with Jason, I've decided to the DRT race. I decided not to gamble on what may or may not happen at the DINO race and just do the race I actually want to do.

I need to stop acting like the sport of mountain bike racing is going to suddenly disappear from the face of the earth, anyway. I have a tendency to feel like I have to do everything immediately or I might not get the chance. For example, I spent all 2007 obsessing over the Louisville USGP of cyclocross because I didn't know when that many fast people would ever be in the Midwest again. Then it turned out that the race came back to Louisville the next year and the next year, Cincinnati had a three-day UCI weekend, the fields grew and grew, and I got my butt kicked in the 25-deep women's 3/4 field two years in a row.

The moral of the story is that what happens this weekend is but a spec in the 10+ years of racing I have left in me, and I probably shouldn't think about it that hard. Maybe Indiana mountain bike racing will eventually catch up with Ohio Valley Cyclocross and I'll have more people to race against than I can handle. That sounds perfect, especially if I can turn that butt-kicking part around.