Rhetts Run Race Report

Loaded up the MTB and headed to Columbia MO for Rhett's Run. Did this back in 2006, the first year Dawndi and I moved to MO. Was 7th that day.

Today I had high hopes of placing well. Over the last month I had spent some significant time out at Cosmo Park pre-riding and even did a pre-race training day there. Felt I had the course dialed in.

Things were dry for the last 3 days and the course All was in place as I had pictured mentally. Woke up today with a chance of rain in the Columbia area. Looked at the radar and it looked like it would stay north keeping Cosmo dry. Well things changed, as I drove there it rained and when I arrived a nice big shower dropped making for a mud bath. That mentally took me off my game a bit.

I begin to go out for a pre-ride before the beginners took off at 11. Switched out tires, headed back out, made one more change and finally settled on a combination that I thought would work for me. Only bad thing is that I took about a hour to do so and did a piss poor job of staying hydrated in the process. For me it was humid and I was dripping with sweat, not a good combination. Not sure why I did this, like I said, the weather mentally took me off my game and I was not thinking right.

Raced started at 12:30, in the end the trails were perfect, rain had drained well and the riders from the previous race smoothed things out. No tire change would have been needed after all, could have rode with what I had on when I arrived.

I had a good start, about 4th of 5th holding that spot I think through the first lap which took about 22 min. During my fist lap I began to feel the on set of dehydration, goose bumps. Crap! I started to drink more and took on a few more gels trying to keep it at bay.

During the 2nd lap it came back a bit more intense, started to make mistakes, concentration was off, more goose bumps and calf cramps started . And to top things off my left grip came loose which I had to take it off.

After 40 min I decided it was best to call it a day and not stress my body with full blown dehydration.

Couple stupid mistakes that could have been avoided if I had just kept my head on straight. Disappointing day for sure, but here are many more days of racing this year staring with this weekend. Dawndi and I race a team duathlon Saturday and then I head to the State Road race on Sunday.

I'm going to go mow now, it's a rider so no risk of dehydration, doubt I'll get a DNF there.