40K of nothing but pain

Ok, so I another blog post, but this one is all about a pretty crazy experience I had yesterday. I drove to Jacksonville to do a race, but it was a fawking intense racing. There are a few different types of races in cycling (road race, criterium, circuit race, etc) all challenging in a different way. One of the most intense races is a time trial. This is when each rider is sent off individually, each separated by one minute intervals. It's all about one man riding against the clock, trying to finish the course in the fastest time. It's all about aerodynamics and just going balls out. But it pretty much comes down to whoever can suffer the most. I've only done two of this type of race in the past, and I've done well considering. But yesterday's race was like nothing ever before. It was a 40 kilometer course (about 25 miles) of nothing but pain. I didn't know what to expect. I pretty much thought that I'd keel over at the finish and possibly die. That obviously didn't happen, but it was insane. I rode the course in 57 minutes, and I was hoping for 55, but whatev I still placed well. But seriously, no one really knows suffering until they do one of these. It's such a mental experience. For the first five miles all I did was question why in the hell I was doing this to myself. Once I got over that initial hump, it was just about not dying while trying to kill myself. Makes sense, right? During a race like this, you drool all over yourself, blow snot all over yourself, whatever, it really doesn't matter. You are in a completely different world for the time that you are riding the course. It's like you are in a zone where nothing else exists, nothing else matters. All you can think about is pedaling nonstop and the pain you feel from doing so. It was insane, but I'm happy to just have finished strong and not die. Other riders were not so lucky. There were a few that collapsed while riding and had to be taken to a hospital. Cycling is no joke.