This weekend the Looneyville played host to the Collegiate Road National Championships, which meant hundreds of cyclists congregated in this fine town for a weekend of bike madness. Unfortunately, thanks to this looming behemoth of a final, I was only able to catch one day of the festivities, but believe me, that was all I needed to be inspired.
The crit took place on a rainy, cool Friday afternoon on Looneyville's main drag. A big chunk of downtown roads were shut down so that the riders could race around and around past the historic buildings and enthused crowds. It was way cool. We managed to catch all four races (men's and women's Division I and II) and I have all sorts of thoughts on the things I saw that will have to wait for another day. The biggest lessons I learned tho were that:
- Roadies crash
- Roadies crash a lot
- Roadies crash and they get back up on their bikes and hop back in the race
- I could stand to be a little more roadie like
Watching people spill all over the place, dust themselves off, and get back on the horse, so to speak, taught me that I really am a huge wuss. Its not that I don't brush myself off and get back on ... its that I'm so damn terrified of crashing that it greatly impedes my ability to progress in the sport (and puts a bit of a damper on my enjoyment of it in general).
I'm inspired. And tomorrow, I will ride. Hopefully, a little less afraid.
The whole thing also prompted a way enlightening discussion on sports psychology between the boyfriend and I. We dissected my head and found a few gray areas as far as sports go, and I'm actually thrilled to be able to put what I learned to use. I will explain it all in another post on another day when i don't have a final that i am certain to fail (and no, I'm NOT a possum - I'm really in deep sh*t) the next day. Plus I want to think about it more.
P.S. The boyfriend took some amazing pictures this weekend which can be found here. If you look closely enough, you might even find a pic of me with one Mountain Bike Hall of Famer's dog !
Posted by gator at May 15, 2005 9:27 PM