Lehrer writes (page 198):

While the cortex struggles to make a decision, rival bits of tissue are contradicting one another. Different brain areas think different things for different reasons. Sometimes this fierce argument is largely emotional, and the distinct parts of the limbic system debate one another. Although people can't always rationally justify their feelings ... these feelings still manage to powerfully affect behavior. Other arguments unfold largely between the emotional and rational systems of the brain as the prefrontal cortex tries to resist the impulses coming from below. Regardless of which areas are doing the arguing, however, it's clear that all those mental components stuffed inside the head are constantly fighting for influence and attention.

On the sixth day of the Big Spring Nationals I got together with my teammates as well as Glen and Terry Reynolds on the east side of the start cylinder under the best looking clouds around. This is not the best place to be if we want to be on the course line (which goes off to the north northwest), but it looked like the best place to be in order to get up and be ready to go. I was happy to be with a bunch of excellent pilots.

We all took off together with the first start time and headed north northwest further away from the course line but under the best looking clouds. Forty five minutes later we were altogether climbing very slowly to almost nine thousand feet. When we all finally topped out we headed west to get back toward the course line and toward the turnpoint that we had to make. I was just very slightly out in front, but there were essentially six of us together.

Six kilometers later we looked around in some broken lift which I didn't really find. I lost 300' on my flying partners in this "thermal" and headed out first. At the end of the next six kilometer glide I was 1000' below my former partners taking a slightly different path. Searching for the next lift to the south I found it first but was now 1,200' to 2,000' below the others.

This was a good thermal, averaging 250 fpm. I was well centered in the core. Just as the core turned a little bit weak, and after I got back up to 7,000', I heard from Jeff O'Brien that he was heading out as was Shapiro (I could see them going, also). Despite the fact that I was 1,000' below them I headed out also. This was a crucial mistake.

Sure the lift was weakening, but at that time I needed all the altitude that I could get. I should have done my best to stay in whatever lift I was in. My emotions told me that I should stay with my teammates (with the good guys in front), but the reality was I was 1,000' below them and rationally I needed to get higher. The emotions completely crowded out the prefrontal cortex.

What was I thinking? Well, I felt that I could find better lift, although the prospects were in fact quite poor. This was not a rational decision. I just wanted to get up with the leaders, and hope is not a strategy.

I had yet another chance to get back up five kilometers further west at 2,700' AGL, but then I left the lift when it was broken and weak. I didn't rationally recognize that this was my last chance. That I needed to stay up in whatever I could find.  I landed shortly thereafter.