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2012 Photo of the Year...

Thursday, 03 January 2013 01:10

This great John Pischke shot of Angie Hop could be entitled "Inner Dialogue." It's about that moment in a race when you come apart, one chunk of you insisting that you must stop, the other telling you to keep pushing, to finish, to stay whole....

Because you are all true endurance athletes, your "keep going" chunk almost always wins the internal debate. You, as Ang did in this MTB race (the Lutsre 99er, her first race of this kind ever, we think?), had gotten off your ass, climbed the wall and endured the tortures of the damned until your timing chip burped at the finish line. In the end, The Wall was no match for your will. That pain and fatigue you endured may have been extreme, but it sucks less in comparison to the guilt and self-doubt you'd have to live with if you had DNFed.

FYI, after Ang finished the 99er, she took a shower and put on clean clothes. She looked real good.