I've been mountain biking for the past 3 years. Just sort of fell into the sport one day during a class I had at school, our h.s. phys ed. teacher raced competatively and he helped set me in the right direction and now I'm where I'm at today. I've played sports all my life so the competativeness in this is nothing new to me. It takes a lot of mental toughness to grind every ounce of energy you have out of your legs in a 12-18 mile course to podium. You'll always have your good days and your bad days but no matter what your bike will always be there to ride and get away from it all.