Not Getting Any Younger

July 27, 2013.

This was the first time I had ever abandoned a race. I woke up that morning with a persistent ache in my right knee, but I was determined to race the Kincaid Road Race that night. After a couple warm-up laps before the race, it didn’t feel any better. After the first two race laps, it felt progressively worse. The pace was fast, but the engine was up to the task. The chassis just couldn’t handle it. On the third time up Chinaman Hill, I sat up, wished the pack well, and then soft pedaled the rest of the lap to cool down. Quitting is not easy for me, but I realized that this race really didn’t count for anything (not that any of mine do), and with the Tour of Anchorage less than a week away, destroying my knee was not among the smarter choices I could make. I ended up flagging an intersection for the rest of the race, wistfully watching others ride around in circles and inflict pain on their fellow cyclists. I’ve never liked the course, mainly because I have a long history of mechanical and physical failures on it, but part of me still felt all dressed up with nowhere to go.

A week before I had checked into a sleep lab, gotten countless wires and sensors strapped to my body, and then was told to fall asleep. All of this was to see why I hadn’t been able to get a restful night’s sleep in what seems like years. As it turns out, I don’t have sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome. I snore and I sometimes talk in my sleep. I’ve been told that for decades, so nothing mind-blowing there. I also have an abnormally low resting heart rate, which is kind of a badge of honor for a cyclist. Yay. Other than that, they found nothing abnormal. I must be getting old.

With these revelations staring at me, I made the choice to move to the Masters 40+ category for the Tour of Anchorage. Getting hammered by guys half my age is appealing to me less and less as the years go by, and the shorter distances the Masters field would be racing (to force some of the sandbaggers into the Expert field) would put a little less stress on my knee. I was planning on doing it for the 2014 season anyway, so this was only moving up the timetable a little. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. That quick acceptance scares me a little, because it indicates a maturity that comes with time.

I am getting old.