Humility

I am not the rider I used to be. I knew this but it became readily apparent this weekend. Chris invited me to join him on the MTB Race Productions pre-ride of the WB50 course. He positioned it as a "slow ride". I accepted. The group broke up into two and Chris told me I needed to be in the "faster" group. He said I would be fine.
The course was awesome. They have put a ton of work into creating trails. (Thanks Duff, Brandon, Summit Bike group, etc.) Some of the stuff was newly cut and still raw, but definitely fun. It is only going to get better. If I was able I would race it for sure and would suggest it to others.
Before we got to the really fun stuff though we had to climb. And I got dropped. Hard. By kids. Granted they are pretty fast kids (do you know the Palmer-Ledger's?), but they still were as young as 11. While I try to keep my ego in check and it is waning these days, it was still a bit of a slap in the face reminding me I AM SLOW.
I was on my bike for 3:45. Which I know is not that long and in years past I would think this is no big deal, but it is the longest ride I have been on for months. I felt good and tired at the end. We only did one lap. The one saving grace of my riding is I am still pretty good on the flats, descents, and techy stuff. This makes me feel alive...and normal. I love it. I love mountain biking.