The team had other plans so I decided to head up and tackle the 3 hr solo class. Confidence was high and the training has been coming along nicely. I drove up around Noon and got stuck in so much traffic from O'Hare to Six Flags, yet arrived in time to get signed up and ready to go. 39 3 hr racers were at the start and I had goals of being in the top 3. Of course, it always depends on who shows up. The LeMans start running uphill is never a good thing for me as I simply don't run, yet was able to push it enough and pass enough in the open to be somewhere around 6th heading into the first singletrack. The body worked to get warmed up as I cranked and twisted around and up and down the tight singletrack. There are a couple real nice climbs and a switchback downhill that add to the challenge. I ended up the lap in 6th and then started feeling good. The flow of the singletrack was going well to improve my lap time by 16 seconds. Lap 3 was also well with a slight drop. Lap 4 I started feeling the pain, yet was determined to keep pushing. Lap 5 was the killer as Ray from Skinnys had been on my tail for two laps. I was simply holding on as best I could, yet he went by at about 4 miles into the lap and at that point I had hit a wall. My body was shutting down, stomach was feeling it, yet managed to salvage the lap without letting anyone else pass me. All of that for a 7th place. I'm a bit discouraged on the outcome as I had higher expectations. I'm having a hard time pushing to the end in races as I get into a comfort zone and simply want to finish. I do need to realize that 5 riders ahead of me are Elite WORS racers and 1 is at the Comp level with other comp and elite racers still behind. Not bad for someone who isn't ranked in any category. As I sat by the car at the end of the race, the fear of puking came over me, my body wouldn't move, my left foot was killing me and hurt to walk on it and my stomach was burning up a bit. I haven't felt this bad since my failing at Levis/Trow a few years back when I did puke. A day later, both feet are hurting and I'm still not sure why. It is the outside edge of both feet. Is it from the run? Is it the new shoes earlier in the year? Is it from clipping some rocks at Blue Mound and clipping them again here? Well, I've gotta heal up and pick myself up to get ready for the highlight of the race year next week at the 24-9. I'm so glad I'm not soloing this, yet it is still going to be mentally tough to push to the end. Hope to see you there! Here are the results of Metro.
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