Life Lessons from the Ladies Lounge

Beech Mountain ProGRT...weather forecast...not optimal.  After races I tend to dream about my run, I keep having nightmares...

The mud was thick and deep and unforgiving.  I found myself falling over sideways on the downhill side of the race course and rolling down a 45 degree slope about 10 or 15 feet.  Unfocused and frazzled, I scrambled back up the hill to my bike, tried to regain a bit of composure, and continued down the trail until the mud took me out again.  I wanted to give up, the conditions were getting the best of me, I felt constricted in my goggles and armor.  I pulled my goggles off my head but didn't know what to do with them.  I was at the start of my favorite section of the race course, the rock garden.  I didn't want to not ride the rock garden, it makes me smile, but I wanted to give up so bad.  I wrapped my goggles around my handlebars and hopped back on the bike and the crowd started to cheer.  As I pumped my way through my line they started to sing "Happy Birthday".  I wanted to cry, my boyfriend had wanted to do something special for my 40th birthday (still two days off during my race run), but hadn't planned anything.  This was a pretty amazing surprise.  The whole crowd in the rock garden at Beech Mountain singing Happy Birthday as I rode through.  Very cool.  I was all smiles now, but once I got into the open, fatigue got the best of me again and I pretty much gave up and rolled to the finish.  I was sad and disappointed in myself, I had already forgotten the awesome birthday song in the rocks because I had put all my focus on trying to win this race and failed miserably.  I got trapped in the competitive blackhole and I witnessed others get trapped in it too.  That blackhole can really throw you in a funk.  Time to climb out.

Happy Birthday Rock Garden.

This was my 7th series race at my home mountain, a mountain where I helped clear brush for the original trails for Gravity Nationals back in the spring of 2011, back before I had even ridden a downhill bike!  I was feeling good for a win at the last race of 2013, but a flat tire ruined that aspiration.  My blind focus on a goal would ruin this one.  I thought I was ready, Mother Nature and my lack of practice in the changing conditions showed me I was not.  Seven races, not once on the top of the podium. Disappointing?  Yes.  I have had some time to think about the events of race day and have started to come to peace with it. 

Muddy girls on practice day.  Me, my friend Chelsea, pro lady Rae Gandolf, and first time downhiller Meiki from Germany!

Back up one day...practice day was amazing!  The weather pretty much sucked, but the course was super fun even in the wet, and the ladies who joined me for the "Ladies Lounge" I had put together for the weekend were really excited to ride.  One of the girls had only been on the downhill bike for a few weekends and was determined to race.  She had a blast on practice day and successfully got to the finish on race day.  Another friend joined us just to ride on practice day and had tons of fun riding the beginner trail but decided to save her first DH race experience for a better weather day and perhaps a bigger bike.  A few bike friends came just to hang out with the DH ladies.  I got to connect with a few pros who I already knew and some I had never met.  All of them very cool women.  We all got dirty and had fun riding together.  This is what downhill racing is all about!  Connections and good times!  Learning from each other and encouraging each other when a new challenge presents itself.  This weekend was full of challenges of every sort and I have come out of it with quite a bit of insight on competition and how it can be a positive thing, but how it can also be a tad bit evil.  A few thoughts from my experience:

Competitiveness is not attractive.  Finishing a race run and instantly spouting off how terrible it went will not win you any fans and feels really crappy.  I had a great ride through my favorite rock garden and everyone sang me Happy Birthday.  That was awesome.  I should have focused on that.  My boyfriend would have been stoked if that was the first thing I said when I came down and I would probably not have gotten so depressed about how crap the rest of my run was.

Pitting yourself against the competition is a lost cause.  You will be much happier pitting yourself against Yourself.  Race the same race courses more than once and compare your new time to your old time.  I improved my time on this same course with the same conditions by 7 seconds.  And my slower time was a clean run, my new time included two crashes and two stops and giving up at the end.  Which means I must be improving by leaps and bounds in the speed category, now I just need to work on controlling that speed a bit better.  I won against myself, and that is what really matters.  Comparing yourself to others also puts rifts in what could be great friendships without that competition added.  We are competing for fanny packs, coozies, and trucker hats after all, so what does it matter?

A race is only a few minutes of your life.  Skill is a huge factor in a race, but so is luck.  Sometimes luck is on your side, sometimes it is not.  Sometimes you crash, sometimes you have a mechanical, sometimes you get passed (that really feels sucky, happens to me a lot in XC), sometimes things just don't go your way.  Just like in life.  There are lessons to be learned in every challenge that we face on the downhill race course.  The best course of action is to look at the situation, decide how we can learn from it in a way that makes us not only a better athlete, but a better human being, and prepare ourselves to face that situation from a wiser perspective the next time we are faced with it.  Getting frazzled about my crashes did nothing positive, and giving up really shouldn't have crossed my mind, (barring injury of course).  Better to breathe through it and quickly refocus that energy into the power to keep going.  This is something I really really need to work on.

All in all this weekend was a good learning experience.  I do wish the weather had been a bit more cooperative.  I missed out on a few connections I wanted to make with some ladies because the gloom put me in blinders.  I tend to be an introvert and when I am stuck in a full face helmet all day because the weather doesn't really let me take it off I end up hiding.  (Something else to work on--speak up!)  It was great to connect with a few of the pro women and to see all my racing friends.  It was awesome to see my friend Jessica on top of the podium even though I had hoped to be there.  We both raced our first race together 2 years ago and it is great to see how much she has progressed.  It was definitely amazing to have a full podium for the Open Women category and be on it with all my friends.  Hoping my Ladies Lounge will continue to give new ladies a warm welcome into the race scene.  

Open Women on the podium.  1st: Jessica Gilbert, me in 2nd, 3rd: Sierra Gleim, 4th: Chelsea Blocker, 5th: first timer racer, Alviola Haley.  Great job all!

The "back forty"

 

In one week I will celebrate my fortieth birthday.  A few people, even those I know relatively well, are going to be surprised at this news.  That makes me exceedingly happy!  Most people who don't know my age guess that I am under 30. 

The trick to staying young I think lies in living life by the seat of your pants most of the time.  Having a plan is always good, but often doesn't work out the way you hope it will.  Life is a balancing act, but it really helps to know how to fall, and sometimes it really helps to know how to throw yourself over the edge and trust your ability, your friends, your bike, or your instinct.

I started mountain biking seriously just before my 35th birthday.  Did a great amount of investigation on women who started biking later in life.  I was inspired by women like Marla Streb who discovered the sport a bit later and really killed it on the race scene up into her 40s.  I think many women struggle with social image during the teens and twenties and even into our 30s.  Even though I kind of broke the mold of a typical women as far as career and pastimes went, I still fell prey to societal norms and felt pressured to get married and start a family during my late 20s and early 30s.  My 20s were dominated by relationship goals and image.  Now I just don't give a crap.  Yes, I have a great relationship, but even if I didn't I don't think I would be worried about it much.  And I don't care how I look or what people say.  Getting older makes you worry less about society and more about how fully you are living your own life. 

A truck full of wheels > a cabinet full of lotions when it comes to obtaining a youthful glow.

I am so happy to be part of the mountain biking community, and especially the Downhill community.  It is such a rewarding and inspiring sport for women.  It forces you to focus on something outside of yourself while still being within yourself.  It helps you find flow and translate that to other areas of your life.  It teaches you how to fall and get back up and brush yourself off and move on.  If you recover from that tumble down a rock garden, then you will recover from that a**hole who actually wasn't even right for you.  If you can muster up the courage to conquer intimidating features you can muster up the courage to do just about anything.  The ladies who you connect to will become some of your best friends.  Women in mountain biking are down to earth and real.  We tell it like it is.  Even though some of us feel timid at times, deep down we are not or we would be at home on the couch, not on a bike.  We face life head on.  We love to ride and love to get other women to ride.  We want other ladies to worry less about society and more about how to really live life to the fullest.  We think the best way to do that is to be on a bike.

This weekend I will likely celebrate my birthday a few days early since I will be participating in the ProGRT race at Beech Mountain with many of my close biking friends.  I am heading up a "Ladies Lounge" at the race in an effort to introduce newer ladies to the sport of Gravity racing.  I am pretty excited about it and hope it will be a huge success and inspiration.  I would love to see this idea grow at other mountains.  For women to take the time to help other ladies out who may otherwise be too intimidated to come out to the races.  Sacrificing some of our own practice time to give other ladies a helping hand will make the sport a better place.  Sharing the Shred is the Fountain of Youth.