Scuffing quickly does not equal running

The girls are running in the gym. I hear this annoying "skuff, skuff squeak, skuff" and notice the amount of upward momentum on their knees is about 3 mm. Not enough to create any cardiovascular development or maintain proper biomechanics for running. This is how i felt on Sundays XC race. Going through the motions, but not getting quite as far or getting there as fast as i should, but that is all good because of this:





Which led to this:



Ultimately leading to this:


I was entirely shocked! I went into the short track (dirt circle) with very low expectations thinking with flashbacks of my sub-par crit experiences. HOwever, racing in the Home Land has HUGE advantages! Being Friday afternoon, i paid, i mean asked, a bunch of my work homies to come take a gander. Katrina and Scott Bennie, Linda and Denny Breeze and Carrie Davais were strategicly placed at the top of the grnarly climb. They yelled, shouted and all but pulled me up the climb. At the decent, where impending doom loomed under every rock and dust pile, Velo Bella Sami sat on a boulder and guided me through it keeping me calm! (This decent FREAKED ME out even on sunday after doing about 28 times!) Once i rounded the home stretch, i was greated by the greater mountain bike community. Racing in SoCal really has its perks. So many of the some guys are at every event, you build quite the support network. The Backbone crew, Veeze and Gary (sinlge speed/marathon freaks) and people i dont even know, banging the fences, cheering at the top of their lungs for me to get it done! In the announcers booth, the usual suspects loomed. Larry Longo and Uncle Greg created the most animated and motivating commentary on the race i think i have ever heard!! They said stuff like "Duerksen's throwing down the gauntlet" and various other things i barely heard. As i rounded the courner, Home Girl Teri screamed, jumped, ran, and yelled as i hammered down the pedals. Jose Ole Thom stood at the bottom of the climb giving the time splits. Super-Throopers dad even whispered to me that the next girl was about 5 feet back.

To say the least, it will be nearly impossible to recreate this race. I performed way beyond what i thought i could do. I moved steadily up from 10th place to 3rd and was able to hang on. On the 4th ot last lap, i was sure i was going to puke and thought how disgusting that would be to come across the line covered with vomit.

So pretty much if you were at that race, you will be coming with me to Vermont, thank you for your support! IFelt so warm and fuzzy after that race, it was really cool.

These things, however, tend to not follow you into the next day and especially not beyond and into another event.... more to come, i do have to work you know...