Fast.....

As I approach the corner I realize that this is the section of the course I have been dreading. The last 25 miles have gone fairly good, but this section is pure sand. I go for it, finding a path where other riders have beaten the trail flat. I make it about 100 yards down the 2 track before I sink like a rock and stall. Knowing this entire section is like this I get off and start pushing. I hear a voice behind me and then a car? What the hell is a car doing here...this section is off limits to cars...morons.

the voice I hear is some dude with a video camera. The car is carrying more camera equipment and they had permission to be out there...so whatever. My issue....I am going to be on the video...WALKING. Dude couldn't have come 5 minutes sooner. SHIT. Anyway....

I can see the tree...and I make the right. The sand is freaking deep. I wish I could ride it...but I sink too much. Ah, maybe now I can. I throw my leg back over the bike and start the slow trudge toward the pavement. How much further...all I see is 2 track and a handful of riders. at least they are riding. sand is better. wait...i wonder how far behind the pros are...can't be long now...the camera crew just passed. Oh crud...is that the motorcycle.....crap....getting close. There is the pavement....about 1/4 mile away...go Sean....GO....get to the pavement before they catch....there goes the motorcycle...and I know they are gaining on me.

......50 yards.....25 yards.....shit...here they come...GO GO GO.....5 yards.....still haven't got me....PAVEMENT.....left turn.....ON YOUR LEFT.....and then WHOOOOOOOOSSSSHHHHH! a group of nearly 25 riders passes me like I am sitting still. Holy shit are they fast...try to jump on the train....hahahaha.....uphill...not happening. these guys pass me like I am standing on the side of the road and disappear over the next hill which is just a long grinder. it is the home stretch and they are just chugging away.....here some some more....one here or there....and then a few groups of 10.

What I realized...is that when the first group passed...even with as hard as these guys were working...I heard a few of them say "good job man" and some "keep going"...out of a group of cyclists that should have been sucking oxygen and worrying about winning their groups or divisions or the overall awards. to hear words of encouragement at that point was awesome for me...and awesome of the ones that had the lungs to give them.

My moment of clarity is that I can be that fast some day...and I hope that I have the lungs to give words of encouragement to the people that are not as fast...but feeling fast...because without that encouragement from total strangers...out in the middle of nowhere...I might have gotten of the bike...and never gotten back on. Keep the sport moving forward. Tell someone good job...you just might keep someone moving...