One-Year Racing Anniversary!

This past Sunday, I raced in the Bear Creek Criterium for the second year. Last year this race was my very first USCF race ever! I actually met Aimee Cormier at this race last year, and it was the first race for both of us. She was there again, and we greeted each other accordingly.

I got to the race in plenty of time to register, change, and, most importantly, WARM UP SUFFICIENTLY! I really tried hard to warm up better than I have been, by doing my prescribed intervals and all that good stuff. I had made sure to eat a good breakfast, and had a Clif bar 2 hours before the race. Then I just kept drinking water.

As I rode over to the start/finish line, I started to get a litle nervous, but after the normal pre-race lecture, we were off, and I had no time to be nervous anymore. Once again, we raced with the juniors, and they took off right from the gun, as usual. I knew I needed to keep up with the fast women in order to even be in the running, so I took off with them. The course wasn't very technical - just one sharp turn, that took a bit of getting used to. At one point, the wheels of the girl ahead of me seemed to slip out from under her, but she somehow stayed upright, and there wasn't an incident.

As the race continued, I was definitely expending energy trying to keep up with the lead group. By this time there were about 4 of us Women 4's riding together, with the occasional 5th person grabbing a wheel. At some point, we were passing a line of juniors on the inside, and someone wobbled, someone else braked, and 2 girls went crashing into the gravel. I screamed as I heard someone get a flat, but I stayed upright, and we kept going. At this point, I think there were just 3 of us in our paceline: me, Joyce, and Michelle. Joyce and Michelle pulled much more than I, but I saw that as their own fault for not pulling off when they got tired. So I just sat in and enjoyed the draft. As they started putting signs up with 5 laps to go, I started getting pretty excited -- I could actually be a factor in the final sprint! With 1 lap to go, 2 or 3 juniors got between me and the 2 other women (I was in the back). This made me a little nervous, because I didn't want the women to jump away from me, in case they knew I wasn't right behind them. But I hung on, and as we came through the final turn, I crept a bit closer. Then the juniors started to sprint. As the 3rd junior passed me, another W4 came out from behind, and I jumped on it. I just KNEW Joyce would be right behind me, but as I passed her, she showed no signs up picking up her pace. The girl who came from behind me was still ahead, but I thought we'd lapped her, so I just dug in, panting like crazy. I crossed the finish line beside 2 juniors, and behind that other W4. As I rolled around the course to cool down, I was having trouble believing I'd just won my first race! I wasn't sure if the girl in front of me was really lapped, but when I spoke to Joyce and Michelle afterwards, they seemed convinced that I'd won (and they'd taken 2nd and 3rd). I waited around for the results, and my name was listed as 2nd. I didn't argue, and took my silver medal. But Mike, who'd come to watch, was also positive I'd been 1st. So today I checked the race results on the TxBRA website, and, sure enough, I came in FIRST!

Wow.

There are 4 main reasons this happened:

1) Committment to my training, along with the fact that I have a coach to guide me.
2) Fueling well.
3) A great warm up.
4) Lessons learned from previous crits:
Lesson 1: Don't bother sprinting for primes if I want to be in the final running. This one I learned at the Houston Grand Criterium.
Lesson 2: Staying with the pack is ESSENTIAL. There's no way I'm catching up if I don't hang on in the first place.
Lesson 3: I have to warm up more than I think I do. I won't wear myself out on a warmup!

I'm sure there's a lot more, but that's what I've got for now. It feels really dang good to be a winner. Now I'm gearing up for the Tour of Columbus crit this Saturday...we'll see how it goes!

In other news, I flew on the "Vomit Comet" today and it was AWESOME. I got to feel weightless. : D

I'll hopefully be posting after the TOC crit.