CODY SHIMIZU

A look into my life, a journal to look back on, a blog for others to see.

After convincing my parents to take me to Whistler for Crank works it was a crazy boost of motivation! The work from the past 3 weeks; I could feel was working building up to Whistler. Unfortunately my luck, the day before the race when I was pre-riding I could feel a little tickle in the back of my throat. I went to bed with my fingers crossed, the next morning I woke up; wasnt great. My nose was stuffed up, my throat was burning. I was disappointed, looking forward to this race all along and ending up with a cold. Pre-riding the day before the course was awesome! It was the most technical course that Ive ever ridden! My favorite was probably the rock drop, it wasnt too high but big enough to initially give me doubts about riding it, but thankfully like most other features after riding that initial time, it was totally fine, even fun to ride. So race morning, I do a shorter than usual warm up to save myself for the race. The heat was blazing and every minuet under the sun was sapping energy from me. As I try to keep myself hydrated till the last second, I rolled up to the line nervous. I can usually get a pretty good start off the line, as long as I can clip in. Today, that was not the case. I was dead last off the line and stayed there for the next lap and a half. The dust wasnt helping, my chest burning, I decided to pull out of the race. I was disappointed, I was hoping I would at least be able to finish the race to save what little shred of pride I had left. I was defeated. After the disastrous race I went down to Whistler`s Crankworks and decided to try and enjoy myself. It was awesome seeing so much of the cycling world come together for this one event. By the end of the day, I almost was able to forget the failure from earlier. In the end I went home with a little bit of regret and a lot of determination to come back.

The next few days I was in bed and resting as much as possible before I headed out to Winnipeg for the Canada Summer Games Test Event. I was excited to take a look at the course, to help me work towards one of the main goals of the next season, to be selected to represent Alberta at the Canada Summer Games next year. After a few days I was feeling good enough to convince myself to be stuffed in a van with a bunch of other teens for 12 hours.

The course at Canada Summer Games was the most interesting course I had ever ridden, a complete contrast from the race in Whistler. They still had some technical features, connected by everything from flowy single track to bumpy rough, Edmonton single track. The course was entirely man made, all of the technical section, even the one hill that makes the entirety of the climbing of the course. Surprisingly the hill is used very effectively, with all sizes filled with a trail either going up or down. Race morning I was feeling much better compared to Whistler. We were starting and racing the length of the elite race, which I was a little worried about, I barely make it through an expert race. Off the start I was in a really good position, I was in the top 5, but by the end of the first lap, I was fading, hard. The rest of the race was all downhill, the climbs were terribly slow, the descents where jarring with no flow. By the time I finished I was so bonked I just pulled over and just laid on the ground for 10min trying to pull myself together. I look forward to coming back here next year, and hopefully I will be better prepared when next year comes around.

Thanks for reading about how my summer went, hope yours was as exciting as mine. With a little less injurys. I am looking forward to the 2017 mountain biking season and will definitly still be rocking the baggys for all of you haters out there!