2012 Hare and Hound #1

Raced in the 1st race of the National Hare and Hound series last Sunday.  I'm still racing as a beginner and as such I only race the first loop of the race.  Even then those 40 miles were very difficult - not terrible but my physical state was probably my worst enemy.  I was/am out of shape but even more important was that I had not eaten in 5 or 6 hours before the race and I was out of energy.  Lesson learned!

I haven't seen the detailed results yet but it appears I was first and last in my class since there was no one else there.  This particular racing club has the distinction of offering the toughest race of the year so I feel good having finished it without breaking anything on the bike or myself.

In a couple of weeks I'll be heading out to the next race in the series and I hope for a better showing.  My new bike and attitude should help me to run a better race next time.  Last week I was very aggressive in the rocks.  Before I was apprehensive and that usually had me ending up going very slow and falling down.  Last week I was tired and annoyed with all the rocks and started powering through them.  Every time but 2 worked out well for me.  Of those two times I went down once and went halfway down the other time, stopped from going all the way to the ground by a rock and a terrible crunching sound that I thought had busted by radiator and ended my race.  But, apparently nothing was wrong because I continued another 10 or 15 miles with no issues.

Last year I participated in four races - I am hoping to be able to double that this year and hopefully even more next year as my kids get a little older and a little more self sufficient.  My wife is barely tolerating this but she knows it is important to me so I have to give her a huge THANKS! for letting me do this as much as I hope to.