Sea Otter sickness

[shiloh]

The thursday before sea otter I came down with a bit of a cold. It seems I've been sick more times this year than I've been in the last three years. Anyways, I loaded up on vitamin c and some EAS super caffeine pre race fuel (tastes terrible) and gave it all I had. I watched a group of about ten guys ride away form me as we went down the first fire road section. I didn't have the power to bridge the gap so I decided to sit tight In a group of four guys. We traded places a few times, some guys got caught, and some got dropped. Snot rockets were flying every fifteen minutes. By the end of the first lap I was all alone but feeling well despite the sickness. half way through the second lap I saw Paul Montgomery doing a pre race corse inspection. He asked me how I was doing. At that moment i felt i was doing great. About 30 seconds later Dario passed me. His start time was 15 minutes behind me, that dampened my spirits a bit but I could see i as catching another group of guys who were in my class. I gave it all I had up the last fire road climb not knowing what the short track race corse to finish was going to do to me. The grassy corse had more steep climbs and switchbacks than I was expecting. My spirit was broken and the caffeine had worn off. I wanted the race to be over, then my chain fell off. one minute later the race was over and I was angry because they had no water at the finish. funny thing is last year i got 8th place with a time of 2:53 i was about 15 minutes behind the winner. This year I got 9th place with a time of 2:55 around 20 minutes behind the leader. it seems that being sick didn't hurt my performance.