Remembering

Sometimes during a race, I don't remember things that I experience until a couple of days later. Here are a couple of those things:
I was riding along refueling, around the 10 miles to go mark when I was passed by some dude. He was talking. He was saying how he figured that I was now just enjoying my ride. How he figured this, I don't know. Then he went on to ask if I was racing the Yazoo Racing Team guy, Jamie. To give an example of my state of mind, I said, " unofficially". What the heck is that supposed to mean? Either it was a ridiculous question, that deserved an idiotic answer, or I was not in control of my words.

First of all, it is a race. I paid money, invested a lot of training to race. So, yes I was racing Jamie, whoever Jamie is. In fact, I was racing everybody. Just because a guy slows down to refuel does not mean he is not racing. So it is official, I was racing.

With two miles to go, I caught the talking guy, and passed him. OOOhhh, the things that flashed in my mind to counter his earlier comments. But what came out? " Come on, " I said, " Keep going, you are almost there."

He thanked me later.

Something else that happens when I am hungry and starting to fatigue is I see things. I "heard" something large running next to me. I "saw" a little 3 yr old kid standing by the trail. I can't think of any more now but I will let you know when I remember.
OH yeah, this was weird. For some reason, halfway through the race, I got paranoid about getting a bloody nose. Then at one point I panicked because I saw blood splattered on my sun glasses. I stopped to take them off. It turned out it was mud, and with the lenses being orange, when the sun shone at just the right angle, it looked red. Weird.

Have a great day.