So here's the part where I pick my ORAMM performance apart....

My abs hurt. I don't know what that's about. I've never felt like this after a race before, but it's like I did 5,000 crunches Sunday. WTF? Maybe it's from trying to suck in my gut on the podium.

With the results being published Monday afternoon I've had plenty of time to think about the final outcome. To gain a true grasp on the topic one must understand my ORAMM history.

2004: 1st place single speed... no other info available as apparently the interweb didn't exist back then. The full results are on a stone tablet kept in a museum in Old Fort.

2005: 2nd place single speed with a time of 6:45

2006: I skipped it as it interfered with the Wilderness 101/NUE Series and the Race Face/Trans Rockies dealio.

2007: 1st place single speed - 9th place overall - 45 minutes behind overall winner Harlan Price on a slightly shortened course - finished in 5:40:30

2008: 1st place single speed - 12th overall - @55 minutes behind Sam Koerber (who beat J. Bishop's record that year) - finished in 5:51:05

and now 2009...

1st place single speed - 19th overall - @1:04 minutes behind new record holder Thomas Turner - finished in 5:56:06

Obviously I'm slipping back in the overall. This has a lot to do with the quality of riders at the top of the field. There's just a shit ton of strong guys showing up for this race, so I'm not gonna beat myself up over that (too much).

I am going to beat myself up on my overall time. I was hoping to better my time by more than eleven minutes and break the 5:40 mark. The choo-choo train did hold me up for a spell, but not for seventeen minutes, and not even for the five minutes I was slower than last year. I felt like I was moving at a good clip this go around, but maybe I was feeling good relative to how I was feeling a few months ago when my iron levels were at an all time low and my hematocrit was somewhere around 39.something. Maybe my expectations were just too high considering that my numbers (iron level, hematocrit, etc.) are still slightly below that of the average couch potato. Maybe it was the extra weight holding me back on the climbs. What did I weigh last year? Six pounds less?? Ten??? Maybe...

What sucks the most is that I stress out way too much about ORAMM. I think about it all year, it consumes my brain in the weeks that lead up to it, and it's all I can think about when the day gets really close at hand. The time I spend on the bike is some of the most stressful racing I do all year. I was hoping that either I would get second place or at least break 5:40 so maybe I could take next year off with no regrets. Now I'm not sure what to do. I guess maybe it's okay that I get a little out of sorts since it is the most important race on the international cycling calender.

When I say I'd like to skip it for awhile, don't get me wrong. ORAMM is a great race, and I'm fortunate to have such an awesome event less than 2 hours from my house. My problem is a monster of my own creation. If I come back next year I'm either going to have to go into a cryogenic state in May only to be thawed out the day before the race or spend some time in a Buddhist monastery in Nepal this winter to learn how to chill. I've heard good things about the Wu Tang Monastery...

So, will I be back next year? Hard to say. It would have been nice to walk away for a year or two, but would I rather come back and chase 5:40 and deal with all the self imposed stress it would entail??

All awesome action photos are from Team Hoffenchard's very own Kelly Smith (or maybe her wife Eric).