5th Place at US Mtb Nats!

On the Fourth of July I went to Breckenridge, CO with my bro and friends to do the 4th of July Firecracker 50, which for the second year, was the US National Mountian Bike Marathon Championships. The day was warmer than usual, which made this 50 mile race tougher than usual, so much so that with so many people struggling and dropping out, that the guy who won the Pro Men's race didn't initially know he had won. I struggled the whole first 25 mile lap, and was seriously considering pulling out when I came through the start/finish to begin the second lap. I started to feel better, and didn't want to let my brother and friends down, so I decided to keep going. I began to catch other guys in my category who were struggling, and also began to see many guys with flat tires and other bike problems. I gave it a good push and finished strong, but had no idea what my ranking was. I went and ate lunch after the race, and decided to go check results before we left. I never made it to the results because they had just started the awards, and called my name for 5th place. Surprise! I knew I had finished 25 minutes slower than last year (blame it on the heat) when I had finished 6th, so the last thing I expected was to finish with a medal.