This was to be my 1st race at Whitney

I've been watching the races at Lake Whitney for 2 seasons of racing just waiting till I thought I could make it around the track in one piece. Today was to be the day I would give it a shot, the final round of the winter series and even though I'm not in the series I had been working hard to condition myself over the last 2 months to be ready.

It all starts the night before, this would be Friday night. At 7pm my buddy calls and says he's got 4 tickets to the power sports AX in Belton and he doesn't like this stuff, if I want the tickets I have to come and get em right now or I'll miss the show. It takes Tigger & me exactly 1 hour to p/u the tickets and make the drive, we get there straight up 8:00. I must say it was the worst setup and least supported event I've ever been to. We left at 9:00 so I could come home and get ready for the big day today. It was 11pm by the time we got home and loaded the RV & trailer so it's time for bed, I'm thinking I need my rest cause Whitney is a big place. At 1:30 am I'm still laying there wide awake yet so tired, by 2:30am I decided to get up and drink some water cause I still couldn't go to sleep. Sometime after that I guess I drifted off because the alarm went off at 5:30 and I was zoning. 6am I was on the road to drop off Tigger for a sleep over at a friend's house, I know her friends' parents think I'm nuts!

It's back to the house to get the RV and hit the highway, it's now about 6:45 and I'm going to be late for practice. I get about a 3rd of the way there and realized I had made this mistake before, racing with no sleep the night before:aj: so I turned around and headed to the local track for practice instead. Now I'm feeling pretty bumbed out cause I had been planning on Whitney for so long.

I pull into the local track as the sun was beaming in my eyes off the horizon and got setup. About 30min later another rider pulled in so I geared up. I had forgotten what it was like to ride on hard hard hard pack dirt. I rode till about 11 when the gas tank was empty. Pushed the bike back to the RV and laid down. I had no problem falling asleep this time.
After about a 2-hour nap I got up and rode till 4pm and every muscle and joint in my body feels jarred. It's not what I had planned but I think I made the right decision.

Anyone else have problems falling asleep the night before a race?

I'm not really sure why I couldn't sleep but I suspect it from the anticipation of Saturday's race. Like I said earlier, I did ride Saturday only it was at my local track. After a good workout and being so tired I thought for sure I would sleep like a baby that night but I didn't. I slept a little better but I still sort of drifted in and out of sleep that night. Surprisingly I did well Sunday.

I like to go to the track the night before when I can, it makes race day so much easier.

I'm with dad80 on this one, stuff like that usually takes a while to wear off in my system. I can take an antihistamine and feel the effects for 2 days and that's if I take the 4-hour relief stuff. I guess I'm a whimp.:think