Mount Tam Hill Climb

That helmet hair!

4th Place

The day started out good and ended well, but the middle involved some dead legs. I got up early and Ryan and Ethan drove over to my house and we went for a warm up over Tam. I could already tell that my legs were not feeling good, but you definitely do not want to admit that to yourself before a race. I just kept rolling along hoping that they would come around before the race. We got down to stinson a bit slower than we would have hoped and that meant for a little bit of a rush of getting pre-race duties done. I made it to the line with plenty of time, but I couldnt find Ryan or Ethan, but they both made it there on time and we were off. Ryan, Ethan and I had ridden the course the week before and we were all excited and prepared. There had not been many tough competitors pre-registered so we had thought about doing a tough pace along the flats in order to get a really good time. However, quite a few other strong riders had showed up so we decided to just sit in on the flats and take it easy. It was a good steady pace around 22 mph, I would have liked for them to go faster, but I wasnt going to go on the front and waste myself, especially considering how my legs felt. We got near the hill and I made my way towards the front and started the hill up there. I soon realized that it was indeed true that my legs felt terrible and I was dying to hold onto the last wheel of the shattered front group. After a few miles of the climb I lost all contact and was left to fight it on my own. My legs felt horrible, but I just kept telling myself "Keep Fightin...keep fightin..." I was caught by Danimal (Daniel Tisdell) and I hung onto his wheel for a while. I was hoping that I could find my legs and catch some riders that would blow up from the front group. That did not happen and I gave it my all to the finish, but was definitely not happy about my result. I was more than 2 minutes slower than my time of last year! I was thoroughly dissappointed, but I had a lot of fun descending down Panoramic back to Stinson. Ryan, Ethan, and I plus my father and his friend Jeff rode out in the general area of the Lighthouse. On the way out towards Pt. Reyes I was suffering horribly, but I eventually found some decent legs. Ryan and I raced up a couple hill with one leg and we made our way back to my house. We were even able to drill it for the last 8 miles and we made it back with 100 miles under our belts for the day.