Before & After

I'm writing this minutes before I jump in the car. As if the nerves from racing up App Gap at the Green Mountain Stage Race weren't enough in a two-week span, today's actually worse. The pressure is on - and it's all on me. There's no hiding in anonymity on your home turf in front of your good friends and teammates.

I've got an army of teammates (finally!) coming out to help me at Turkey Day today. I'm trailing Brigham (R1V) by 5 points in the BAR and somehow we've gotta take that back. To do this, I need to finish in the top seven racers today, and he needs to be at least a few racers back.

It's an uphill battle; failure is the most probable option. Stealing the BAR in the last race of the season (a 1.1-mile dead-flat circle? that's a sure contrast to GMSR) is not an easy task when you consider Brigham is one of the best Cat 3 crit racers in MABRA. No shit. But the line going through my head is from one of those corny-yet-inspiring versus commercials: Just because they're the strong doesn't mean they can't get their asses kicked.

So it's on. Gametime. Raceday - for the last time in 2010. I'm wearing my navy and gold Hylton High School Crew Team henley t-shirt from freshman year of high school. It's my raceday shirt, though I only wear it now when I'm nervous the morning of a competition. Perhaps it's like mithril armor. It reminds me that years ago, I could handle this pressure. I've lost a wohle hell of a lot of races, and won a few times.

Nothing to lose - second place is secure in the BAR, so that means the pressure is equally on Brigham and his three R1V teammates to chase down everything I do, catch all the crap I throw their way. I've got four strong teammates to guide me through, but it's gotta be me. They're all stronger than me, perhaps, in different ways. Hopefully their speed and strengths will rub off on me when I need it most.

If anything, it'll be a fun show. I don't race to simply cross the line, I race to compete. And that's what will happen today.