City Park criterium is hosted by Thump Cycling which means I was up early on Saturday to help put on the race. I walked around the course with friends putting cones in key spots, then doing odds and ends until we were ready for the juniors to start. I spent most of my day drinking water, under a tree, watching the other categories race and telling people not to cross the road. I had a number of non-bike racing friends stop by which was also really cool.
My race was at 2:45 and I definitely was feeling pretty drained by then. While sitting on a trainer warming up, it randomly lost a grip on my bike and I fell over, scratching some paint off my rear triangle. I was quite nervous, hoping that the carbon hadn't been cracked. I unhooked my bike from the trainer and scrambled to get race ready. I had some trusted, experienced cyclists look at my bike and assure me it was just cosmetic which helped me calm down.
Off the start line, I couldn't get my foot clipped which was really frustrating. I got it fast enough and caught up to the pack. My mouth immediately felt dry - I knew it meant dehydration. For such a short race, I'd only brought 2/3 bottle of water but I immediately reached for it to try to combat the feeling and potential exhaustion.
I thought back to an article one of my teammates posted about being a better crit racer "if you're not moving up, you're moving back" so I kept trying to safely and smartly better my position. Inevitably, out of the third turn, the front of the pack would start hammering and really string us out. We'd then turn again and continue laying down the power up the hill to the finishing straight. Every time I pushed myself to hang on, and every time they would slow coming to the first corner. It was excellent practice of the fast/slow/fast/slow jumping.
My mouth continued to dry and I needed to spit but was so dehydrated, I couldn't. I started heaving which was...not very pleasant, but tried my best to ignore it, drink water, clear out my mouth and keep going. While this was a disgusting experience, I learned a lot about how my body reacts to dehydration and what that feels like (and how to push through it).
I remember looking down at 10 min of race time feeling disbelief that we still had 2/3 of the race left, but the pace did being to calm after a few laps. I just kept on keeping on. Trying to move up. Trying to hold on. Finding wheels, staying on them. With four laps to go they announced a prime lap (which means the first person to cross the line on this lap gets a special prize). These laps always blow apart the field. Even if you don't want the prime, you have to sprint to stay on the race. We came through and I wasn't that far off but we had strung out. I spent the next three laps just barely off the group, working with my teammate to get back on. I could see she was tired. She held my wheel and as we came through the last lap, she pulled ahead and said "let's go" but I had nothing left - I could not hold her and the heaving became worse. I knew I wasn't going to win. I didn't feel like stopping and throwing up.
I backed off the pace coming through the second to last turn, and I saw my teammate and two others on the side of the road - there was a crash. I slowed to look but everyone seemed to be getting up. I sprinted to the finish just to practice laying down something more at the very end. Plus, there was no one around so I wasn't going to be dangerously impacting someone else's race. I came around a cool down lap and then looked for the women in the crash. I saw them up and moving, which is always a good sign.
I ended up 8th, but I was proud of how hard I fought in this one and the lessons I learned.
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| Sticking it out @ City Park |
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