So there I was, driving with the wind screen wipers going flat out towards Hirakata Ohashi, wondering whether I would really race. I was entertaining the idea of going along and seeing just how bad it felt on the start line. An idle thought. Short of debilitating sickness, where I have not been able to get out of bed, I've never missed a race that I've entered. The truth is I actually enjoy them.
Training is okay, but the race is the thing.
Racing is, for me, a space in my life where I am truly alone and in touch with who and what I am. Not what I think I am, or what I want to be, but precisely what I am. The carpark next to the race headquarters was almost full, but I managed to get in. I stepped out of the car onto the gravel surface and sank almost up to my ankle in water. I leapt back into the car to try and dry my foot.