To Race or Not to Race?

I figured the best way to figure out whether I could race or not this weekend was to see what the thumb could handle so I headed to the Santa Ynez race course and jumped on. And it was so bumpy and jarring that I almost ducked out on half a lap. It was so bad. Check out the course conditions here:




Some of those cracks were so cracked that they created tire traps which just added another element that I am not up for this time around. I have got enough to worry about as it is without adding that into the equation!

It was so jack hammery though that I feared that I undid any progress I made on my thumb just from pre-riding!! I was getting rattled, the bike was getting rattled and most importantly, my hand was getting rattled. I mean, you expect mtbing to be bumpy and stuff but this was outrageous and quite honestly it flat out sucked.

As I was heading around the course I would hit one little piece of smooth singletrack and would make a decision that "I can do this on Saturday!!!" and get all excited . But then I would be thrown back into jack hammer hell and take it all back very quickly. The course was about %80 jack hammer and %20 smooth I'd say which isn't good for a healing hand. I felt so great on the climbs too!! But then I felt like a little wuss on the downhill sections, especially when I tried to lean the bike over around a corner. Bummer!!!!

After a full lap on the course I realized that I just simply wasn't opening up on the downhill like I normally do. I was hesitant and not very aggressive which is a bad combo and can get you into more trouble. My cast wasn't giving me much room to budge and I am finding that you need that extra room to budge to be safe! Plus.....I am not really even holding on to the bike as you can see in this photo:

Bottom line is that it is just not a safe scenario for me to race with a broken thumb that is all casted up. I tried at least. Plus, racing is hard enough when you are going into it a %100 well and ready and I am just NOT well and really not ready either after coming off of food poisoning for a week. I am still feeling the effects of the massive depletion as my body makes its way back to fully normal. Did I just call myself normal? Hmmmm. Not sure that is very accurate. :)

More bumpy singletrack on the NMBS course.

So the decision has been made or just really finalized here today. I am not racing in this NMBS race on Saturday. It is the first one I have missed since 2003 but I am making the right decision.

Here is one of the first singletrack climbs up the NMBS course.

Good luck to all those who are racing!