Utah DH Championship Series #2 @ Deer Valley Resort

This weekend was the second race in the Utah DH Championship Series. It
was held at Deer Valley Resort, and being in Sport class (it goes
beginner, sport, expert, semi-pro, pro) I had the luxury of being on the
"easier" course. Easier meaning there were still many 2-3 ft drops,
root rolls, steeps, and a multitude of other technical things. Easy for
the pros, but difficult for me. I practiced the course about 9 times so
I could memorize where the roughs were.

The race was a two run format, with your best time only counting.
First run, dropped my chain six, yes SIX times, half the time having to
stand there and yank and yank to get it unstuck from the crank. Lost a
lot of time. Embarrassed myself by standing at the bottom of a big drop
cussing a blue streak while trying to yank my chain unstuck - I had just
put the chain on at the top of the drop, it was the fifth time, and all
I could see was the clock ticking in my head and the need to get back on
the bike, and the bike not cooperating. Apparently though, there were a
bunch of people standing there spectating.......oops. (Heard about that
later, felt horrible.) Chain fell off again about 150 feet later, I
decided to hell with it, I was going to coast in since I was almost
through. Tried to keep up my speed through a deep dip / gravity well
since I couldn't pedal if I lost too much speed, and hit it with TOO
much speed and launched myself off the back of the bike. It was seconds
from the bottom where the girl behind finally passed me. I passed her
again just before the end, but still, crappy run. I was pissed - it's
one thing to perform badly and have a bad run, but it's so frustrating
when it's your equipment. I was riding well, but with the chain there
was absolutely nothing I could do. Anyway, first run time of WELL over
9 minutes. Sigh.

Second run, about two hours later, went much better. Tried to go too
fast in the beginning and fell on a couple of the switchbacks, ended up
falling a total of three times. Told myself to calm down and just get
into the rythym and the rest of the run went well. Hit all the drops
and rolls and roots and technical bits almost perfectly (after I stopped
falling in the beginning of course), but was so tired by the end I
couldn't pedal any faster on the straightaway into the finish. Kicking
myself now though, since I only lost by 5 seconds. If I'd fallen only
twice (or no times, grin), or pedaled faster in the straighter sections.
5 seconds! Final time of 7:51. But hey, it was only my second race,
and my first race not in beginner class. Yay! I'm pretty satisfied,
especially since my goal wasn't to win, it was just to break 8 minutes.

Not only satisfied, but hooked.