![\"\"](\"http:\/\/orthoinfo.aaos.org\/figures\/A00025F01.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSo, I’ve been avoiding the MTB. I think that the padding on my gloves (swapped from winter ones to summer ones) was putting pressure on the area, and I’ve been riding my road bike in the meantime. It didn’t seem to irritate the area as long as I paid attention to my hand position.<\/p>\n
Back to the race… A mile or so later, the pace slacked up a bit. It was at that time that I noticed that my problematic fingers were totally numb. I’d had my hands down in the crook of my drops and hadn’t been paying any attention to keeping the pressure off of where it didn’t need to be. I tried shaking my hand out a bit and resting it in a more neutral position, but it felt horrible. In the interest of saving my “tough the pain out” day for next weekend’s Ouachita Challenge, I pulled out of the race. My first DNF ever. Crap.<\/p>\n
\nI lined up with the B race (W1\/2\/3 and Cat 4 men). The start was generally mundane. Someone attacked from the start, and rather than chase like crazy, a few guys got up front and rode tempo to bring him back steadily. Early in the first lap, we hit the short gravel road section. Unlike Rouge, I was able to stay with the pack’s little bit of a surge. My legs were actually feeling good. A few of the guys up front (including Dale Sanford<\/a>, who eventually won) briefly picked up the pace in order to shed the riders struggling with the terrain.<\/p>\n