OK, this post is all about biking. Although metaphors are ripe for the picking, in this post I do not draw parallels from my biking adventures to business as I normally do. 

I admit it. It was slightly thrilling to visit the USACycling website and see results for me.  After several years of having a license I finally have results. And although there has been something in my results column for most of the summer, the posting from Saturday's race was not a haunting 'DNF' -- it simply said 8th place.

OK, for you non-racers out there, yes, you need a license to race sanctioned races. [And, yes, it costs money.] The website has the results from all of the races and for all of the racers in the country.  But, they do not track or post results for Cat5 (beginner) races.  When I moved up to a Cat4 last year I thought I would finally see my name on the results page of the site. But it was not to be, since the only race I did, my results were not sent in because I was DNF -- Did Not Finish.  This year I had high hopes and dreams for getting some great Cat4 results, but having a start-up business sort of got in the way of my training and I didn't get the results I had hoped for.  So, in May I did a race that did get reported to USACycling, but I was (again) DNF.  So all summer, that big DNF haunted me and was a reminder that (at least on the bike) I am not getting any results.  

To clarify, I didn't finish the race on Saturday, but was stopped because of an officials mistake.  They were running two races at once and I was behind my group so much she thought I was with the other group and she stopped me because they were only doing 4 laps and I was supposed to do 5. I didn't put up much of an argument because, quite frankly, I was relieved to stop racing by myself.  Besides, we were the last race of the day and I was a half a lap behind (about 15 - 20 minutes behind) so maybe they just wanted to pack up and go home.  Regardless of the reason, my time held the words '1 lap' instead of 'DNF'.  Technically in a race like this, you are DNF'ed if you get lapped -- and I wasn't lapped.

So, in reality, this result, although thrilliing at first, was just another non-result. And it makes me hungry for a 'real result'.  Saturday is the big Minnesota State Championship Road Race, and I am dying for a meaningful entry in my USACycling profile. One where I have a time in the 'Time' column and not words.

I'll be back to let you know how it goes.