I finished dead last!
 

Had a tough MTB race yesterday with some tough competition. There's just something special about DLBF.

Although it sounds better if I tell people I was 5th in my age group and easily in the top 20 overall. :D

Still, I'm hardly bummed about it. I managed to pass and stay ahead of the dude who took 3rd in my age group for most of the first lap. I ended up only 7 minutes behind him at the end of a very tough 18 miles.

at least you were out there..... :thumb:

You finished...period. Good work!

And we meet again!
 

Hey Askel!!!!:thumb: Third place we have bumped into each other!!!!:D

Good job on the racing.....takes guts to get out there and compare yourself against others!!!!:thumb: Excellent job, you have my admiration for getting out there and giving it a go!
Did ya get any pics at the event????

Ride Safe!!!

John

A long time ago when I was into mountain bike racing I DNF'ed twice. Both times it was just due to my ego - in retrospect my only regrets were not finishing those races. You did great.

My Gosh, I've rode swith some mtb racers and they are smoking fast in the dirt/hills. I applaud you for showing up! Dead last in a race isn't bad. Heck, get the entire cycling population in the race, you'd be way up there!:thumb:

You started...period. Good work!

Be proud, take your place among other Lanternes Rouge's ;)

http://tdflr.blogspot.com/

dfl >> dnf


(why is BF filtering my caps lock and making my acronyms lower-case?)

Byob

(yup, my upper case letters got lower cased too)

Same thing happened to me sofar in the crits I attended :) Not dead last, but dead 2nd last or so :)

Just keep training and riding and you'll get faster.

my first mtb race last month i finished 15 out of 18 and one of those DNF... so i think this might be normal for people who have never done this before :)

Not seen this before, almost like it is now using a standard writing format. First letter in caps and everything else in lower case. I'll ask.

Bottom line is you competed. You're already ahead of countless others just by doing that. Much respect, hope you do beter next time. Besides, if you win your first race, what do you have to look forward to? LOL

You went, you raced, you finished! That rocks!

You did way better than me, I was a 'DNLC' (did not leave couch)

There you go! You FINISHED, and that's what it's all about

"It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or when the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worth cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt

I totally sucked in my first mtb race. What helps a bunch is if you ride the course at least a few times in advance so you know what you're up against. You can even get to the race early and take a warm up lap. :beer:

congrats, dude! while I got on my bike this weekend, it was only for coffee/bagel runs each morning (10 miles total), and a wash/derailluer adjustment and lube (length of driveway). Chickened outta a light grocery run.

big time props for getting out there.

Quite a few years ago, I used to shoot High Power rifle.
I entered a regional championship (inexperienced).
Temps got up to about 113 that day, no shade, because it IS a rifle range. Since my 6' frame was packing close to 300 lbs, and wearing a shooting jacket, I pretty much "melted" and finished last.
Very nasty mirage at 600 yds! I can say, I was beat by a person that later won the national championship! Getting beat by the 12 year old girl was a bit hard to take though!:)

I was just out riding, and boy, do I feel old, fat and slow. So finishing last in a race sounds a lot better than huffing around the bike trail like me.

Keep at it, and maybe you'll be whooping up on those other guys after a while. Or maybe not. But then at least you'll know what's involved, and won't be sitting around years from now, thinking "I wish I had tried that."

I've hiked up mountains. I've roller skated. I've unicycled. I've jogged. I've ridden bicycles. I've swam. Some of it, I figured out right quick wasn't for me. Some of it, I could do, but didn't enjoy it. Some of it, I enjoyed immensely, even though I was on the low end of the range of achievement, too. But the thing is, you don't know until you try.

"Getting beat by the 12 year old girl was a bit hard to take though!"
I hiked up Round Mountain in Colorado one time. I huffed and puffed for 4 hours making it up there, felt like a he-man for doing it. Got up to the top and there wwas a bunch of old white-haired people that looked like they were right out of the nursing home. THen again, I went up one of the 14'ers, was in better shape by then, and moving right along. Got passed by a boy and his dad, I think that boy was 11. So, yes, humility happens, but don't let it keep you from doing stuff.

DFL is better than DNF. I am entering my first mountain bike race in a couple weeks, and I'm one who tends to jump in head first, so it is a six hour event. Keep in mind this will be July in Texas, at least the last hour and a half or so will be after dark so it will start to cool down.

Congratulations on the ride. You had fun, which is the important thing.

Thanks for the encouraging words folks. :thumb:

Somebody did manage to get a picture of me during the start. It was "Le Mans style". We left our bikes at the top of the ski hill and had to run up from the bottom. That was only the first of three times I had to run up that sucker. At least I wasn't pushing a 33lb bike as well. :D

http://www.feep.org/gallery/albums/b...1222.sized.jpg

(That's me with the winged "RJ" logo on my jersey and the hammergel stuck in in my shorts. :) )