The morning of the race, my stomach was churning (which is normal) and I was completely dreading the amount of pain that I would have to endure at approximately 1:30pm. We carpooled to the race with our friends Michelle and Derik, this definitely helped take my mind off the upcoming pain.
Brian, Derik and I rode a practice lap together. It was all going well until I got a bit cocky and was making fun of a guy who passed us and then I crashed. It was a harmless crash, I was able to ride the ladder* so the crash itself didn't really hurt. I got a couple of scratches on my new bike. Glad I got that out of the way.
I got to the start line and pretty much felt like I was going to vomit (or vom as my co-worker Kaelyn says). They did the call-ups and my name got called around 8th or 9th so I was able to get a front row starting position. I made idle chit chat with the people around me. I noticed the girl in front of me had socks with unicorns and rainbows. They were really cool - I need to get some of these.
My strategy for the race was to take off like hell so that I wouldn't get caught up in the first sand section's craziness. When the gun went off, I took off and quickly found myself in 2nd position. For a moment I thought to myself, "holy crap, what am I doing in second place?" then I realized that I should continue pedaling so I could get through the sand. I think this turned out to be a good move early on in my race.
In previous years when I've raced this course, I have typically wished for a flat tire or wanted to quit half way through. Each time I would come around to the start/finish, I'd dread to see how many laps were left. This year, it didn't bother me a bit. I kept my focus on being consistent, trying not to make mistakes and keeping my pace with the women ahead of me.
Below is a picture of me going over one of the barriers. Oh, the barrier was in sand, uphill and a had sharp right had turn before it. It was awesome.
So the race continued on and I tried to catch the people in front of me. I kept hearing Michelle cheer and shout encouraging words to me. I found myself having fun during the race. I think I was smiling at one point. My new bike performed well. It is so light!
After the race, I was relieved to be done. I once again felt like I was going to vom, but at that point I guess it would have been ok. When results were posted, I was shocked to see that I had placed 4th. I earned 2 upgrade points with this placing. I wasn't expecting to earn any upgrade points this year.
Sunday night and Monday morning were a little rough. I was pretty exhausted and it took me until Monday afternoon to begin to feel better. I am happy to have raced at Silver Lake. It gives me more motivation to do my dreaded VO2 max intervals this Wednesday. It also gives me motivation to push myself harder during races. I suppose that is good since I have a race every single weekend from now until December 11th. Yikes!
*Ride the ladder is an industry term for staying tucked when you crash your bike and not flailing your arms like an idiot when you crash. Ok, it isn't really an industry term, it is a term from my Dad for when you are picking apples and your ladder gives way. You "ride the ladder" all the way down so you don't hurt yourself. It is a really useful phrase for bike racing.
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