Sometimes there are not any options for us as racers.  It’s Sunday, you are at the venue, you want to pin on a number and you only qualify for 1 event.  So you register for that event, and you give it your best shot.   Other times there are options.  If you are a master  you can race with guys your age, or you can race with racers of all ages by racing in your assigned category.  Or maybe you are a mountain bike racer and you have to decide which category you are racing on a particular weekend.  Whichever the situation may be, I more often than not see racers choose the easiest race option.  I will not tell you that they have made the wrong decision by doing that.  Sometimes it is the perfect decision.  But I stand up and applaud the warriors who take opportunities to push themselves to new places.  To dive into the deep end.  To enter events where they know that they are going to struggle .  Pictured above is Matt.  Matt came to me earlier in the year and said that he wanted pass on the age graded category at Iceman, and instead he wanted to enter the elite wave of the race.  I told him it was a great idea.  It would allow him to experience the race at a different pace and level.  It would allow him to grow as a racer.  When the time came to make the registration decision Matt stuck to his plan, and he signed up for the elite race.  When the race day was here he kitted up, got on the bike and stuck to the plan we had developed for him.  And he had a great race, and the experience helped him expand his racing capacities and boundaries.