finished...at last

The picture says it all. I can only think back to one other time this season where there was a look on my face like that. At the time, I was suffering from a really nasty stomach virus that ended up putting me down for almost two weeks. This past weekend, I was suffering from a severe bought of mental exhaustion. Don't get me wrong, I love racing. I love it alot but at some point all the training, all the worrying about the weight and the sleep finally gets to you. I could not focus last weekend. I don't know if maybe the legs were just not there but I knew that it was time to hang it up for the year. At the end of the day an 8th place in the 1,2,3 race is not exactly where I had hoped to finish let alone should have finished. I know damn well I could have been in the top 5... That's life.

Later on that very same day, the team (Skylands Cycling) had its annual awards banquet. Normally, I probably wouldn't have attended but seeing as I was up for an award I thought it would be respectful if I showed my face. It was a nice event, cozy little restaurant/bar place on the other side of the mountain. Never really knew they had a banquet room but it was very nice. Christmas tree in the corner, fire burning in the fireplace (it was one of those fake gas fires) but very cozy nonetheless. We shared stories of our victories and defeats. Talked of where our travels had taken us this past season and where we plan to go in the year to come. Friends, family and teammates sat together and shared one last feast in cycling season 2007. Our race director then presented awards to some very deserving athletes. Skylands Cycling happens to be one of the strongest masters racing teams in the garden state (that would be NJ folks). So, needless to say, two very deserving individuals received awards for their accomplishments. I can't really remember all the categories that had awards but there were seven altogether. Yours truly ended up bringing home some hardware as I was named the Skylands Cycling "Best Cyclocross Racer" of 2007. Acknowledgments like that don't come to often for me so it was something that I will not soon forget and will continue to cherish.