Comments on: An Open Letter To About 90% Of Everyone I’ve Ever Asked, “How’d Your Race Go?”

By: Jacob

Jacob — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 13:54:04 +0000

Ok, I don’t know if you check your old posts for comments, but I raced this weekend and took your advice. You didn’t ask me about it, but here’s my answer. (I also referenced this post.)

http://aracauna.blogspot.com/2013/09/my-first-time-racing-mountain-bike.html

By: Amy

Amy — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 16:13:05 +0000

August 25th I rode in my first ever USA sanctioned race. I was officially placed 8th in the W Cat4. Unofficially I am not really sure how I finished. I am positive I was not in the top three but there were aprox. 10 of us all fighting for position the last few blocks coming up to the finish. We all crossed with no time gap and the race official was PARKING THE OFFICIAL RACE CAR when we crossed the finish line! We all had to gather around in a circle and argue over who finished where while he wrote it down on a paper and then scratched it out and wrote something else. His excuse for not being there was “Wow, you girls were faster than I thought.” My first thought was “Really? You just followed us around the course for the last 24 miles. Didn’t you know how fast we were going?”

At the end of the day I just got a top 10 finish on my first ever race. I didn’t get a flat, I didn’t crash, and I didn’t get dropped. It was a huge success and I can’t wait to do it again; perhaps with some improvements! :)

How was your race?

By: Duane

Duane — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 14:18:53 +0000

I think fatty is in the minority of people who care about the answer when they ask this question. The bigger problem are people who, when asked about their race, grab the bullhorn and proceed to regale you with a 20 minute monologue about their epic journey to 17th place at some no-name event. I’m down with how it seems important at the time and a lot of energy goes into racing, but the world needs more humble and succinct answers.

The reason some people may answer in a non-committal way (“it was fine”, etc) is because we all have an idealized race day image of ourselves. We imagine that the others have trained less, eaten more or that we are genetically gifted and that we will ride a race day euphoria onto the podium. True to the law of averages, most people will have an average finish. This stings just a bit.

By: rob w

rob w — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 23:31:51 +0000

Yo Fatty
I would love to see you elaborate on ‘race vs ride’. It seems making that jump to ‘I am gonna race thiss event vs just finish’ can be a little daunting. Was there a specific time or race in your life when you decided to lay it all down…..or is it something that you transitioned to??

By: 21stcenturymom

21stcenturymom — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 00:51:51 +0000

How long have you got?

I DNF’d which might suck but I broke my thumb halfway through training so the fact that I showed up to race an Ironman, largely untrained is kind of cool.

Only problem is – I have to do it again, next year. Oh well.

By: Diane

Diane — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 06:45:51 +0000

@Jeremy
That is awesome.

I too want to find a way to do Rockwell next year, but I am a lousy climber, so I’m working on that.

@Fatty
In a storm of inspiration, I wrote my first race report last night, but it seemed way too long to post. Two pages of 10 point font. So, I’m consulting an expert. Thoughts on appropriate length for such documents?

By: Drew

Drew — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 13:19:34 +0000

I need to read the comments more. I didn’t realize how frequently Fatty replied and how nice everyone was (the internet has trained me to avoid comments). That’s so cool.

By: Angus Weer

Angus Weer — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 12:05:44 +0000

Yes. All the others should hurt. That’s the meaning of winning. Make all the others hurt while you ride away with a smile.

By: Tom in Albany

Tom in Albany — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 11:57:52 +0000

@Fatty – Thanks for the rescue on my race report!!

@Brian – If you win, but it didn’t hurt, is it really a victory?

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 11:23:24 +0000

Fatty – I raced in my third ever MTB race and won my age group (30-39) and got fifth overall (Cat3). I was out drinking the night before until midnight and wasn’t going to race. In the morning, I decided to quit being a wuss and opted to race just to see the new course layout. After the first lap I found myself in third and figured, “why not just win?” And I did. But it kind of hurt.