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All glory to God ✞ || XII || CO
@ammortal_official
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Booling with my buds 🧌
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From start lines to late nights, it’s the people beside me that make the miles matter. 🫶🏼
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Card declined #gtt
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At the turn
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March - What a month… I love my friends. 
Race recap and reflection:
Mile 9.
Sitting 4th/5th in the front group. Feeling good. Locked in.
A famous technical section—Waterfall—is coming up.

I pick my line.
BANG.

Pedal clips a rock.
I slam hard into the rock garden beneath me.

Blood on the rocks. Blood on my bike.
Thumb torn open.
Both arms. Both legs. Bleeding.
Everything aching.

First thought:
“My race is over.”

Then—ADRENALINE.
Pure, powerful, unstoppable.
I can still ride.

Somewhere in the distance…
“You need a med kit?”

Game changer.

5 minutes later, the bleeding slows.
The pain doesn’t.

New thought:
Finish. Make the cutoff.

Hammer time.

Every bump hurts.
I can’t move my thumb.
The trail is brutally technical.
My whole body is screaming.

Miles pass.

I want it to stop.

Then something shifts…

Pain.
What can be learned from it?

I love it here. I hate it here.
I am Smiling. I am Laughing.
I love the world. I love nature. I love people. I love bikes.

Just keep moving forward.
It will end.

Smooth is fast.
Eat. Drink. Don’t crash.

~50 miles later—

Course marshal ahead.

“Stop. Your race is over. You missed the cutoff by 2 minutes.”

Relief.
Disappointment.
Gratitude. 🫶🏼

Treat pain and discomfort with curiosity.
There’s always something to learn.

see you next year @groraces
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