Three posts down, Kelly listed out the stats for the BCBR and as he said it was excellent racing. That's my second year doing the event and it really does showcase some of the best singletrack in the world. Kelly is lucky to live in Squamish because the trails there really are awesome!
Stats don't tell the whole story of course, a placing isn't reflective of an experience and no matter where you placed in a category (as long as you were pushing yourself hard) at BCBR you were guaranteed to improve you handling skills, technical lines and redlined pain absorption. Kelly was ripping it up out there and I'm looking forward to watching him represent down under.
Two posts down, Scott talks about the mental aspect of 24 Solo racing, I like to think one of my strongest attributes for Solo events is my mental game, my wife calls it stubbornness. As long as I designate a mission profile for an 'A' race I'll execute accordingly at my highest level, the trick for me is placing the correct priority on any event. If it's an 'A' race I'll march through 300 Spartans swinging a battle-axe and continue forward until I reach my target destination, leaving Spartans scattered behind me. If it's a 'B' race I tend to be less intense and can sometimes relax a bit too much, I'll rely more on experience to take me through the event rather than the 'take no prisoners' attitude of an 'A' race. Mental prep work prior and mindset on race day generally decide my results. No doubt, Worlds is an 'A' race and I plan on taking a pretty big battle-axe. Battle-axe's don't make the race any less fun, racing is always fun (in a perverse way) swinging an 'A' race battle-axe just makes racing a whole lot more intense.
As for Canmore in two weeks, I had a bit of a setback at BCBR when I took a massive wipe-out halfway through the event, smashing my leg up quite badly. Pain meds, ice and anti-inflams were my friends for the remainder of the event. My racing partner said I should pull the plug but it's hard to pass on those kinds of trails and testing yourself against quality racers. I'm glad I raced the remainder of the event but it cost me in recovery time. I had to take a full week off the bike while I hobbled around the house complaining about my injury, even if nobody would listen. Finally getting out on the bike yesterday for 3hrs made me realize the leg is still hurting but not so bad that I can't lineup, it will let me race at Canmore just not at a level I would like. As the hours unfold in the race I'll see what the injury has to say for itself and then I'll either slow down... or ignore what it's trying to tell me... my wife calls it stubborn but I call it racing. ;-)
Sorry to hear about your crash and hope your recovery goes well. Nice work pushing through to finish the race. See you next week in Canmore.
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