I actually did do a 4-mile race on July 4. My chip time says 9:40s on that one, but my Garmin said 9:25s. Everyone else's Garmin said the course was long AND I had to tie my shoe so... we're going with Garmin because I like it better.
ANYWAY that is NOT what this report is about. This report is about my very stressful, but ultimately successful morning at the South Table Mountain/Boulder Orthopedics Criterium.
I signed up for this race because I was originally going to do the one last week in Littleton, until I saw how tame this course looked in terms of technical turns. It is on a closed course "track" that the Colorado State Police uses for training and other things.. I suppose.
However, two nights ago I had this awful dream that there were only two women in my category and so they made a big "mixed" category where they threw a whole bunch of people in together and she was always chasing me and she looked super fierce and aero and... anxiety. Then I woke up the next morning, told my friend about the dream, looked at the registrants and saw there were only two women registered (including me)! Well, I about lost it. I've been having a really tough few weeks and this was just another thing to throw me over the tipping point. By the end of online registration that evening, we were a field of 4 women. If nothing else, this was going to be interesting.
I woke up naturally this morning at 5:07, 8 minutes before my alarm. I decided that instead of trying to close my eyes for a few min, I would allow myself to wake up just a touch more slowly. It was so early :( but I got my butt up and for ONCE was ahead of schedule (good thing too). On my drive up, I was being stupid - or maybe just half asleep - and turned too early to get on the freeway. I ended up arriving at the track only 30 min before my race. NOT ideal.
I hustled over to pick up my race bib, but because it was so early the volunteers were still sort of figuring out their process AND the porto-potties hadn't arrived yet so there was only one and a sizable line. Well, I decided that having the urge the WHOLE RACE would be worse than not getting as much of a warm-up so I waited in line.
(I know, this is a 40-min race and I haven't even gotten to the race part yet. I promise, exposition almost done.)
Pulling my bike out of my car, I'd just put new pedals and cleats on my shoes and they were making a bit of a rattling noise. So after tightening those down (thankfully, my brain was sort of functioning at 5:20 to realize I'd probably want to bring some tools), I headed off on a warm up lap.
The course was, as I suspected, not very technical. I think the toughest part was dealing with some loose gravel, which had been largely cleaned up. That and figuring out how best to set up the chicane on the back side of the course to navigate gravel, take the shortest path, and not - ya know - crash.
I came through one lap at 6:55. I considered starting out on one more, but another woman turned around and 3 were riding up to the line so I thought "welp, that is just going to have to do!" I ran back to my car to take in a little more water, and then came up to the line. At least half of the field was already there, so I was glad I made that decision. One more rider came up and the official said "ok, well that is everyone." *phew* We were 8 cat 4 women and one junior woman (let me tell you, she was one fierce junior woman too, but that is for later in the report). While making announcement, the race director kind of looked at me like "are you a junior woman too?" I mean, I get I'm not all kitted out in team gear and look at least 5 years younger than most of the women on the starting line (because, well, I am) but... 18, really?
I was also having some bizarre issue with my new cleats. My right foot...which I push off on would NOT clip in. Awesome. I was worried I was going to make it through one lap and have to pull off for a mechanical. Damn new clips.
At the line, I know you're supposed to start on it to start in a good position. I mean, I guess I should've... but with such a small group, I didn't know what to expect and certainly am not capable of pulling these ladies for very long. In fact, I'd probably piss them off trying to figure out how to take the corners for the first few laps. So, as we went off, I secured a place... pretty much dead last in the group. *sigh* That wasn't what I wanted and I knew this would leave me vying for places for the entire race. Hey, at least my cleat had gone in the pedal so... small victory. I was next to the junior woman, who made a push to change up the pack, another girl went behind her and I went with her, but on the first corner she got so aggressive one woman was like "hey, I'm on your right" as she veered into her and then she basically just shoved me out of the second corner. I thought to myself "ok, whatever hot shot. I'm not crashing my brand new bike just because you have a power complex about these corners." So she made it up to second or third wheel, which is actually a really good position...but almost took some of us out along the way. I wasn't interested. The rest of us dropped back after her shenanigans.
Shortly after that, around the third lap, I started to get dropped off the back. My insufficient warm-up definitely didn't help the fact that (a) I wasn't quite ready to ride at this effort and (b) I hadn't analyzed how to knock out the corners. They never got too far ahead of me and I knew they tended to take the slightly uphill straight-away pretty easily. So I worked. I worked really. freaking. hard. They were not so much better that I couldn't hold on. Gasping for air, I gassed it to grab the wheel. God, this is why I hate being in the back. Playing yo-yo is no fun. But, sure enough, we hit the straight away and they eased up as they did up the hill and I grabbed the woman's wheel in front of me. It was so demoralizing coming through and seeing the spectators. I knew what they were thinking "oh, here we go, they're gonna weed the weak ones out - there, she's falling off." I wasn't weak. I just wasn't ready. I needed to get my head in the game.
Back in the pack, I had flashbacks to sucking wind at my last crit. (My last crit I was dropped three times, largely due to the crashes that strung us out.) "I'm not doing that again," I told myself. So I didn't. I held the heck on and soon enough we were at 5 laps to go. For you non-bike racers, this is when the race turns from a "timed" race into a distance race. I half expected the women to start gunning it. They didn't though. As we came up the slight hill, I thought I felt a surge, but they backed off. That, or I held on alright. We just kept cruising. Around 4 laps to go I started vying for position. I was done riding in the freaking back. I came up on the right to see if I could get some girls to chicken out of riding that tight against the road with someone next to them. I almost did until one woman said "I'm holding her wheel," meaning "I'm not freaking moving." I responded with "Ok" but didn't ease up. Luckily the two women behind me did back off and I managed to grab 7th wheel. SUCCESS.
We came around with 2 laps to go. Still not much in the way of aggression. I also realized this one girl had been pulling almost the entire time. Seriously? I mean, (a) that makes her so fierce, (b) none of you hot-shot wannabe cat 3s wanted to help a sister out?...where was the junior girl who was so into slamming us all into crappy situations? Oh, right...second wheel. Wheelsucker.
Finally as we came into the final lap, I could feel the tension. We wanted to go. There were some small moves. We did end up breaking into two-lines and shuffling around. Even I had more power, so as we entered the chicane and I was finally taking my corners like a baller, I followed this woman who was easing up the left. She backed off but I thought... "Well, I mean, I'm not going to get anything great out of the sprint..." so as we hit the last corner, I went and a few girls went with me! "Haha, look at me, making an attack like a baller" until we reached the 200m sign and I realized I was third wheel. Uh oh... here we go. Pretty much as I realized that and started "sprinting" I watched as a few girls gassed it and just TOOK OFF. Geeeeezz. I wish I could sprint like that but, the life of triathlon training is 75% steady state so let me tell you about my sprint muscles... oh yeah, I don't have any :D
I finished around 5 or 6 in the end. NOT LAST AND I DIDN'T GET DROPPED (read: what I most care about)! Not bad at all for my second crit ever. During the cool down lap I was next to the girl who pulled the whole way. I introduced myself and told her that I thought she was really strong and that I was super impressed. I could tell she was a little sad she didn't win. I would be too if I pulled the whole group for 40 min! She was really disappointed no one bothered to come share in the suffering. I felt a little guilty I never did, but truly I would've pulled one lap and then probably compromised the whole rest of my race. I mean, really, I was sitting at the back the whole time. She told me she wasn't much of a sprinter either, so I shared in her pain. Still, she's first in my book because any girl who can pull a pack of women for 40 minutes at about 23 mph must be pretty tough and tired.
I pulled off and put my bike in my car. A woman from the cycling team who was holding the event stopped me and said "I was really glad to see you get back on the group out there." I felt proud. People noticed me getting dropped and then coming back from behind and having a pretty solid mid-pack performance. ;) #don'tcallitacomeback
This was a big break through race for me because I learned so much about cornering - even if they were tame, and got over some of my fears. During the last few laps I was taking the corners nice and tight and not being a lame-o scaredy cat or sliding off the group. It definitely makes me feel like this really is something I can do. I'm hanging in there with women who ride for teams, train with teams, practice this stuff all the time...and all I do is ride 2-4 times a week on my own or in small groups. This makes me think that being on a team would be endlessly helpful for my growth as a racer...and maybe I'll even learn how to sprint! :)
See ya back here, same time, same place, in two weeks after the Boulder Sunset Triathlon!
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