The women’s race today was much harder than my last race.  Lucky me, I got to go first.  We did the ask a bike racer in the car next to us, to watch our kids for the 3-5 minutes between my race and his.  It all turned out fine.  I was fairly anxious about the kids, the cars, and their choices of transportation- scooters and trikes- hubby keeps saying to me “tranquillo” and “calme”.   Need to be more “calme” in the future!

THE COURSE:

*A big mother of a hill that lasted two turns (of a 4 corner course)

*two fairly technical turns with water in the gutters

*one major raised pothole with bumps on the top

Not what I would call EASY by any stretch.  My last race was a four corner flat fast sprinters dream!  Position was key in this race.  The best place to be was out of the wind and in the FRONT.  And, unfortunately for me I was really only comfortable in the front or in the back.  I also had trouble staying in the middle of the group.  My cycling fitness -such that it is – you know, almost no training- lead me to treat this as an interval workout.  Geez, cause it was freakin hard.

The field was bigger too- maybe twenty- five to thirty women who hold either a Category 3 or Category 4 license.  At the moment, I am holding a Cat. 4 license.  The history of this is that after children, I downgraded myself and now I have to earn points to upgrade all over again.

Due to the nature of the course and the time we’d be out there, and the number of women I knew that I’d probably have to be SERIOUSLY FIT to finish in the top ten today.  So, I decided, I’d sprint for primes.  Not sure about you, but chain lube, is not something I am going to sprint for.  Clif bars, yes.  Money, yes.  Gift cards, yes.  Roses, yes.  Slimy seven or whatever they call it, no.

So, thank you, organizers of the race, for the roses! I love them.