by Cheri Felix
It’s that time of the week when I’ve looked through the race photos, I’ve shared my split times on Facebook and I’ve changed my profile picture to reflect that I raced. Let’s face it. If I can work it into a conversation that I raced this week, I do it. I am not sure what to compare it to. A great first date that you want to share with all your college friends? The best day at your new job? That time your sister, brother, mother, father, DIDN’T say something that hurt your feelings? Or maybe that time you went in for your six month dental cleaning and they said you needed NO NEW WORK DONE. Regardless of the analogy, those hours after a race for me, are always like that mystical land in Buddhism called Shangri-la; the land where no one dies or grows older. It’s magical and filtered through fairy dust even though I know that I redlined the whole entire race.
Redlining is a part of racing cross. For me, it is an ovaries-out experience. Pushing myself like no other sport, except maybe short track racing. But in short track there are no barriers or sandpits. It’s hard and humbling and you get very clear, very fast where you need to work. And if you listen closely, where you don’t. During the race, a friend said to me “You pick really good lines.” Okay, maybe she just said “good lines” but since this is my flashback, I get to add things. And I said “thank you.” It would have been very easy to say “yah…but I’m not good at the straight aways or the power courses..” But instead I said “thank you.” It’s so tempting to downgrade a compliment by telling others what we are NOT good at so fight that pull on your self-esteem ripcord. And after the race, she and I connected again and she complimented me again. Which leads to my other bit of sage wisdom.
Pick a few wins. Successes. Whatever you want to call them. I rode the sandpits every time and the downhill to get to them (fast) and the uphill immediately after them. Even though my heart was saying “no way Joserita.” I was proud of that. After every race, pick out a few things you did really well. You passed two or three people, you rode the sand. All. The. Way. Through. You looked out the corners. You didn’t crash. You immediately clipped in on your start. You kept up with the fast half. You stayed with the slower half. Whatever. You did more than a few things right. In a community where getting to the podium is akin to getting your 20 year old collagen back, you have to shoot for different stars. My stars are fast starts, passing in the corners, fairly even split times and riding until it hurts and to the point where I know that I have absolutely nothing else to give. I guess what I’m really saying is that there’s only one winner and we cannot only race to win. Too many of us won’t win but we must keep racing. Because showing ourselves and everyone else around us that is watching including our kids, that we can work hard, not win and still feel successful is super important.
Ride. Have fun. Be grateful.
0 Comments