More "Don't Quote Me" Wisdom

"We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what have already done." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It seems that the US Today "Don't Quote Me" puzzles are doing more for me that just staving off Alzheimer's Disease (something I'm afraid of, even before my 30th birthday). They are also providing me with little bits of bike racing-applicable wisdom. Today's quote was interesting to me because it's something I've already been thinking about for the last couple of weeks.

It all started after the results from the OC were posted and I went through a bit of "I coulda been a contender" remorse. Okay, not a contender, contender, but like a not last place contender. For me, that is kind of a big deal.

I started comparing the OC results to the Syllamo's start list to try and make some sense of what I could expect on May 1. I know darn well that this type of speculation is pretty futile, and I generally force myself to refrain from it, but this time I just had to go there. Guessing by past OC and Syllamo's results, less than half of the 34 women entered will even finish, and based on past OC, Lumberjack 100, and Pisgah stage race results, I will not be one of those women. Guessing by what I feel I am capable of doing, I will be among the top half that finishes and perhaps even a bit better. However, I have a feeling that most of the other women on the list feel the same way or they wouldn't still be signed up at this point. Only Saturday will tell who actually survives back luck, bad mud, or bad pacing. I'm just crossing my fingers that it will finally be my day.