Saturday was the second race of the Epic Single Track series in Winter Park. This was the first actual race, not a dumb 'ol hillclimb. This was a shorter race at 18 miles, and not any terribly prolonged climbs. Here's what the course looked like:
Confusing.
The race took a weird route that had us on the same trail twice near the beginning / end. It does't say much about me that I had didn't recognize a trail I was on an hour earlier. I only noticed it after looking at the map.
This race I tried something new by using a GPS watch to track my distance. I used Natalie's Garmin Forerunner. It's great because you can customize what it shows you. I chose tome of day, elapsed time and distance:
Garmin
I took the race profile form the WP site and figured out where the points of interest were:
Race profile
Armed with this information, I was able to figure out where I wanted to push it and where to rest. I wrote these distances down on a piece of tape and stuck it to my bike like so:
Important distances
The was helpful because I knew how long I had been riding and how far to go and all that. It could be distracting if you were too neurotic about checking, but it helped a lot with my limited amount of energy. And it seems to have helped:
Definitely not last place
I am super stoked on this finish. The last race was pretty discouraging, and I came into this one determined to push myself harder and battle harder for position. That was easier on this course which featured some technical climbs, some fast descents and even a hairy water crossing. Looking forward to the next race a lot!
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