Season finale

Wednesday, 3 September

I'm following up last weekend's 5-event stage race (ha! everybody else only did 4 events--ain't tandem crits great!) with a season-ending time trial in Maupin this Saturday. At this point, I can't think of much that sounds better than 12 hours on my bike. 12 hours of no phone, no email, no upgrade requests, no hemming and hawing over Meet the Teams rides. I won't say there won't be any thinking about this team and that team, or what to make of offers of deals on new bikes, or what I want to do different next year. But it's amazing how your mind can be filled for most of 12 hours with just absorbing where you're at and what you're doing--living in the moment. Somebody once asked Uta Pippig, the great German distance runner, what she thought about during a marathon. She said she didn't have time to think about anything!

I'm taking my mantra for this race (and it is a race--there are some powerful athletes in my field) from Brian Ecker's Race Across Oregon experience: my only job is to pedal. The beauty of the scenery will be absorbed whether I think about it or not. :) Thoughts about teams and bikes and the cat 3 women's series and a winter training ride schedule and all those things that hound me when my feet are on the ground will just have to wait.