i love to hurt, and crunch my teeth, and feel emtpyness in my lungs. i love to feel my heartrate leaping out of my neck and the sound of its beating resonating in my chest. i love looking at my legs and knowing that their capabilities are endless, only my mind is closed. i love looking at my bike and wondering how it has allowed me to torture it, crash it, and take it across amany finish lines with more than a few things missing. I love just spinning its cranks as its up on the repair stand watching things work. i love passing roadies on my mountain bike on the road. i love just looking at it and saying damn, you kick ass. most of all though i love to win.

I liked your words so much, I copied them over to a word doc. You got my HR up just reading it, and I'm not joking.


God how I too love it so.

Thanks indeed,

Duck

I race because I can.







At 41, I have found that I like the competition, the training, the people, the PAIN and most of all the ability to go fast without having to worry about casual riders, hikers, dogs, etc. I want to teach my kids that they can do anything if they want to. I show them how by example.

Tryin2B

Because I still get the pre race jitters..big time!

about 6 years ago I was a smoker that lacked direction, and had that sort of empty feeling going on. I quit smoking and bought a bike to begin training. I find that I need to have something to focus on, and just being a rider wasn't cutting it. 6 years later I have become what I used to idol-an expert mtb racer. I race because it brings focus and direction. I also race because I need to follow through with something very difficult in my life, and see it through to the very end. I don't want to look back later in life and realize that I have never followed anything through to reach my highest potential. Plus, it feels great to be in better shape now than I ever have been before, eat as much as I want, have something that my family and friends can cheer for me, and once in a while stand on that podium and feel great about accomplishing a difficult feat that 99% of people never feel.
Last but cetainly not least, the comraderie and friendships I have developed are second to none!
See ya at the races....

I started racing last year just to be a better rider. I consider all racing as just amped up training. My "A" events are the epic 6+ hour summer adventures shared with friends. I guess I am more of a free-ride spirit when it comes to mtbing.

I don't really have a good racing mtb bike. I converted my GF Big Sur to a ss.

I only did a couple of mtb races last year. I was disappointed to find the Sport class to be full of slow descenders. Based on the group that I regularly ride with, I am the weakest descender. On the other hand, I wouldn't have worked the climbing as hard for an informal group ride. Some of the tactical positioning for racing wouldn't be acceptable on group rides either.

I started racing last year just to be a better rider. I consider all racing as just amped up training. My "A" events are the epic 6+ hour summer adventures shared with friends. I guess I am more of a free-ride spirit when it comes to mtbing.

I don't really have a good racing mtb bike. I converted my GF Big Sur to a ss.

I only did a couple of mtb races last year. I was disappointed to find the Sport class to be full of slow descenders. Based on the group that I regularly ride with, I am the weakest descender. On the other hand, I wouldn't have worked the climbing as hard for an informal group ride. Some of the tactical positioning for racing wouldn't be acceptable on group rides either.
I always was into sports. But mtb racing, is awesome the pain, the joy, the focus is all so unique. At the end you really race against yourself, that ability to push harder when you think you can't is such a great feeling.

Now last year I ended on the box a few times, now the guys in my area now the old guy on the trail thats fairly fast and they like to try to push you up a long climb and after 20 or so minutes they give up and the old guy keeps going what a feeling.

Of course now all the other 40+ year olds are gunning for me, so bring it on I love it and all this from a vehicle with 2 wheels and no motor. I want more and now my kids and wife are doing it a family affair all weekend. We know what we are doing, we are hitting the trail.

Riding is my meditation, racing is my deliverance.

I race purely to challenge myself and to enjoy new terrain/sights.

I race to satisfy my need for accomplishment. Riding and training are very enjoyable and give me an unmatchable sense of getting away and participating in the natural world. But that is an internal satisfaction, racing is an external satisfaction - knowing that I'm as good at something as others who also try really hard. The benefits of racing go deep in my life. It affects how I eat, how my wife and kids eat, how I spend money, it motivates my wife and kids (and they motivate me), and it motivates me to be better in totally unrelated ways. Since I understand the effort my competitors put in, I understand the effort my friends and family put in for their chosen work and recreation. Hopefully the process makes me a better husband and father. I also like the "pain" of training. It is better to feel pain than to not feel at all and without feeling pain, do we really comprehend joy, love, etc. Oddly, I do not race to win. I race to do my very best and if that means I finish first that is pretty awesome, but it most likely means I need to cat up. All that said, I don't really, REALLY know why I race - there is something inside that makes me want to do it. Maybe it just makes me happy.

There's nothing like that feeling of being totally wiped, at the end of a race, :D and you're still pumped!

and nothing better to spend it on. Oh and to see if I can ever figure out how to actually and truely peak on race day! :D

I guess you can't NM anymore.

or maybe that's why i train.

i race because i can.
i race because i want to see how i match up with others
i race because i want to win
i race to see how fast i can go
i race because i have to use my competitive energy somewhere
i race because apparently i have more money than good sense
i race because i want to
i race because i love the feeling of wondering what crack smoking decision made me even consider racing when i still have 2 laps to go in a 3 lap race and remembering as i cross the finish line
i race because i want to be the best
i race to prove to myself that i can do things that i didn't think i could

rt - there's nothing better than an adrenalin high

...sixteen years ago I walked away from my love affair with motocross. Twelve years of torture on my body was just too much for something I did just as a hobby. I spent most of the nineties playing golf with my buddies getting fat and drunk, but my heart was still on the dirt. I discovered mtbing in 1998, quit golf, and have been hooked ever since. Two years ago, a friend talked me into doing a race. Initially I didn't want to do it, I enjoyed riding so much that I didn't want to taint it with the pressures of competition. I ended up doing the race anyway, and hated it. I almost puked and got totally smoked, but I finished. Afterwards, as I rolled into the pits, I told myself that this was my first, and last, race. But as soon as the pain wore off, I started thinking about racing again. The next year I did two races. Last season I did six, and again, I'm totally hooked. At 41 I don't aspire to be a champion at any level. In fact, breaking into the top ten is considered a good race for me...heck, completing a race is a good race for me. Its weird because at some point during a race I ask myself, "what the hell am I doing this for?" I mean crap, this is painfull! What do I do this for? I guess because I like challenging myself. I enjoy the camaraderie. Training for racing improves my recreational riding. There's alot of reasons I guess, but ultimately its because I'm a racer, always have been, always will be.

competition is probably one of the purest forms of expression there is.....that simple.