Life at the Middle of the Pack

Today was great! Which was good because there were so many reasons for it go poorly.

I was on duty at school this weekend, which means midnight curfews for the girls, which means midnight bedtime for me. When there's a 9 am race an hour or so north the next morning, going to bed late isn't always the best.

I woke up and was on the road by 630. I actually had to scrape frost off my windshields and hoped that racing weather wouldn't be too chilly, as I hadn't really packed accordingly. Sure I had arm warmers, but no knee or leg warmers; in addition, my skin suit was pulled from the dryer on my way out of my apartment the night before without having the chance to dry completely.

When I arrived at the race, I felt tired. and hungry. and cold. I registered and saw my teammate Nicole in the parking lot. She waited for me to change and I tried to maintain composure as I donned my cold, damp skinsuit. I layered up as best I could: sports bra, undershirt, arm warmers and another layer to warm up in. I was certainly the only one pre-riding without knee or leg warmers, but I felt fine.

The course had changed from last year, which if you remember was when I crashed and separatd my shoulder. Driving up to Freedom Park, I swear my shoulder was having sympathy pains. The course was short and full of technical sections, that with the melting frost, made for wet, slippery conditions. Everything was definitely rideable, but just tricky.

I felt good on the warm up lap with Nicole and we pointed out ideas on how best to maneuver through sections. There were a lot of speedy downhills that led to not-so-speedy uphills, so I tried to perfect my shifting before I approached the downhill so I'd be in the right gear to help me climb best.

At the start of the race, there was a gaggle of gals, some who I'd seen and knew how good they were and some I'd not seen before and had no clue. I stayed with Nicole who followed the pack as we left the line. The course was fast and two packs formed: the lead pack and the pack I was in, with Nicole and me battling back and forth and a few other riders behind us. My legs felt really good, no doubt they benefited from a 2 hour bike ride the day before. My body and mind felt really good as well. I was alert and feeling competitive, but not anxious.

Nicole and I led each other around on a lap or two, on our third lap she pulled ahead of me and I chased her. At 3 laps into it, there was still not a lap count, which made me a little nervous; sure, I felt good, but for how long? I decided not to worry about that and just stayed focused on the current lap.

On the fourth lap, a Hunt Valley Cycling gal and I began to battle. I am not sure if I caught her or she caught me at first, but we battled. I stayed on her wheel very closely for much of the fourth lap. On the fifth lap or so, I pulled ahead and led her around. On the final lap, I was leading but a few technicalities kept me from beating her. There was this great section of pavement right after a tricky off-cambor part. The pavement was long enough that I could put into a hard gear, get into my drops and put the hammer down to make up time. However, on the last lap, I couldn't clip in successfully and she passed me. I caught her, luckily and thought it was mine, except as we both bunny hopped over the final log, I got caught up in the snow fencing and had to untangle myself, while she pedaled to the finish.

Despite her success over me, this was by far the most fun I've had racing all season. I felt strong and focused and I fought. I was competitive without being anxious, which usually forces me to question myself. I don't know the official results yet, but I am hopeful that I broke into the top 10. I was able to lap a few of the riders, too, even though I ultimately was lapped by the leader. It's fun to chart my progress over the years and life feels good at the middle of the pack.

This was the last MABRA race before MABRA championships on Sunday, November 25 in Taneytown, MD. I'm currently 19th out of 40 women, so today's points will bump me up a little, I hope. :) (Update: Going into Championships, I am 13th on out of 45)