My only personal goal was to not give into the pain. Warming up, I cranked up the suffer-music, took off my HR monitor, and declared to myself that I would ride in zone "Don't get dropped." I came prepared to suffer. Once we turned onto the steep part of the climb (Carrol Rd.), the real climbers were kind enough to unleash some crazy-ass pain. Somewhere, somehow, I dug deep and stayed with the lead group. Our starting pack of around 40 riders was widdled down to 8 within the first 20 minutes of the race. I was honored to be there. And it hurt. Man, did it hurt. So, I promised myself that if I could stay with this group, I'd come straight home and lose a few more pounds, so that maybe it wouldn't hurt so badly next time.
A little bit of this:
Followed by a little bit of that:
And it looks like I'll have to suffer through the pain again next time.
I got gapped later on from the lead group, did some TTing, and ended up in a chase group. I heard that we brought the gap to within a minute somewhere mid-race. Unfortunately, there was a nasty crash in our paceline on the flats. I went down hard, but was fortunate to be able to get back on my bike and finished 16th. The good news is that it was my best finish ever in a hilly road race. Before the crash, I was in a chase group with some very strong climbers who I have admired from afar for a long while. I wish the best to Annie Henry from EMC who took the worst fall and had done some kick-ass pulling to move us closer to the lead group.
And Sabine made Laurie's day with her amazing pulls. I'm looking forward to racing together again soon!
8 comments:
Great job Alicat.
16th with a crash is great! i remember that race is sooo hard.
that's an awesome result! and most importantly, glad you feel good about it.
Glad to hear your in good spirits, some lanesplitter definitely will help with that :-)
At first I thought the marshmallows were Advil tablets!
s'mores! yum! heal quickly.
good job out there...that race is hard enough without dealing with crashes.
Congrats, Alicat! I saw you at 16th in the results and thought "wow, she's really competitive - even in the new, higher category!" I didn't even know you had crashed. I wish you speedy healing for the road rash.
Sounds like you had a fabulously successful weekend all around -- great job!
stud
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