NQ here.
Sea Otter from my perscpective: I rolled in Wed afternoon, got organized, went for a little pedal around the hotel parking lot and hit the hay pretty early cause pro practice started at 8am. I'm Defintely NOT a morning person when it comes to riding. It's pretty easy to get up and ride, but get up an learn to pin it...that's tough. My body doesn't normally "wake-up" until like 2 or 3 in the afternoon, so 8am starts were tough. The course it self was actually pretty fun because of the berms and jump set-up's. After running the course on Day 1 on my heckler, then day 2 running my V10 I decided to go with the V10 simply cause it was less sketchy to ride at high speed. I'm not sure that was the right choice. Race-runs are usually 1 sketchy moment anyways, so ...should have ran the little bike instead of the monster truck V10. Oh well, lesson learned about the importance of bike selection, set-up etc.
Day 1 Practice was a pretty cool expierence for Justin and I in that we rode with Mark Weir and Forest Arkwanka (sp, sorry Forest). I really look up to Wier for multiple reasons. Namely his fitness level and how fast the old bugger is. Plus the dude has a sweet mustache!!! For me this was one of the "cooler" experiences about the whole Sea Otter trip, riding with the big boys.
My Race run went pretty descent. A few things threw me off a bit though. In the US, maybe it's a US Cycling thing, but there timing system runs off a series of beeps instead of using eye's. I'm so use to rolling into the start gate, listening to the beep, beep, beeeeeeep. and then you go after the long one at anypoint cause your time starts when you cross through the eyes. Down their it runs a serious of 6 beeps. beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beeeep. Thing is you go on the last beep, but the clock starts on the 6th beep. So do you actually go on the 5th or wait until you simply here the 6th then intiate your starting pedal??? Since I was like the 5th dude out of the start gate I wasn't sure. Oh well. Lesson learned, pay attention to how things start...could be the difference between 1st and 54th. That's right Rennie got me by 15 seconds cause of the start gate...HA HA kidding. Actually it's cause the guy is a monster. I felt like a little kid standing beside him, but he remembered me from Psychosis. Bugger...I need to beat him this year, I know I'm dreaming, but a guy can dream right!!! Speaking of Rennie, I was reading NSMB this morning and came across this picture Dan Barham shot (www.danBarham.com). That shot says it all right there. Intensity, Focus, Determination and the fact that Rennie is a fricken Monster Truck. Kids if your reading this, look at learn from this shot. A picture says a thousand words, in this case this picture says one thing "I'm winning this race".
Word of the day today "Listen to Slayer"... incorporate that into your ride!!!
