The ups & downs of Afton

When planning on going fast it helps to go slow. This was my first year at Afton racing Cat 1/pro so the plan was to not ever overdo it. Racing at buck or shorter races trains you to GO GO GO till you cant. So before Afton happened I had to keep telling myself start slow, climb at a speed I can keep climbing all day at, Ride the rest of the trail fast. The start of the race was fun I got a call up, starting in the front is nice. The start was OK, not to crazy fast. We got to the first climb and I was going to stick to the plan so I climb slow per the plan, there was no one going past? Shady lane no one passed went to the switchbacks the same. There was heath and others there but no pressure from anyone. This was good! I hit a rock and heath passed, I road with him till the the short cut/DLA he did not know of the short cut yet. The next lap and a half was just me trying not to over do it. There was some racers behind me but at the time I did not know who was back there. I got up to 7th place when I got past Eric o. Then the 4th lap came up, I was trying to keep it together with no one with in 60 sec or so, about half way through the shock twinges started in the legs. My 1x9 was going to hurt on the manhandler, so I hammered it to finish the day. Almost to the top I passed a green # plate I looked again in shock, I was like o I get to race hard to the finish. So I Dug deep to get to the top and the fastest down hill of the day( for me). Finish 6th place overall, It was a great day