First Taste of Xterra

Last Thursday I borrowed my room mates very expensive mountain bike and went to Hamilton Creek to ride around. This was my first time to ever mountain bike and I was pretty excited about it considering I'll be doing a triathlon in a month or so that involves a trail ride. I've heard that Hamilton Creek has some very technical trails but my ego was way bigger than any trail I could possibly imagine. Honestly, besides swimming, I pick up on new sports extremely fast and usually excel at them. I wish I had before and after pictures of this day because I went into the trail head scratch free and came out looking like I've been put through garbage disposal! I started off on the beginner trails and got to my first technical rock garden. I slowly approached the section and just as I was going over the first set of rocks, my back tire began to lift off the ground and I slowly began to roll forward over my handle bars and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it! Did I mention that I am wearing shoes that allow me to clip into the pedals. In other words, I'm attached to the bike! Luckily I came out of the pedals before I flew over the handle bars. Laying on my face with the bike a few feet away, I took a deep breath and picked my pride off the dirt. I had officially met my match. Most people would just walk back to the car but this sparked an animal inside of me that wanted more. Since I survived my first wreck, I wanted to go faster and hit bigger, more technical sections of the course. I eventually got the hang of going down hill over large rocks and logs on the beginner section. That was enough confidence for me to try the advanced/expert course. It's a 6 mile loop that includes 3 emergency stations and a heli pad for life flight. I basically played pin ball through the entire 6 miles of grueling hills, rocks and trees. Evidently your speed and the gear you're in is very critical. If you go to slow down a steep rock section, you can go over the front of your bars (which I did twice) and if you go too fast, you'll be out of control and won't be able to hold your line. Completely exhausted, I made it back to the trail head and loaded up my bike. I looked down at my legs and I had tire tread on the back of both, rock scrapes that were on the front of my legs, 2 of which made me bleed pretty good, fire ant bites on my arms, a few scratches on my face from low hanging limbs, and a partially bruised ego! Overall I was pretty stoked about coming out alive! I actually like the fact that I royally sucked! It gives me motivation to get better and go back to conquer more difficult areas of the trail. I've got a lot to learn before my first race!