'09 Race to the River

I haven't seen the final results but I think Rebecca said we had 25 racers in the sport 30-39 class. It sure felt like a crowd at the starting line for our group. Rebecca did a role call at the starting line and I was at the bottom of the list so I quickly realized I was on the fourth row and getting to the woods first was going to be a challenge. So I did the rude thing and elbowed my way to the second row in the middle so I wouldn’t get caught in a crowd trying to get into the woods.

The horn blew and off we went up the gravel road and onto firebreak. When we crossed the wood ramp on firebreak I was in a comfortable 4th place position. This is where I stayed all of the way to spiderwoman and into inner woman. Essentially riding in a lead group of four riders including me at what felt like a moderate pace.

Inner woman was not on my mental preparation leading up to this race. I was surprised that we were going to ride inner woman when Rebecca announced it. I really do not like this trail. It never has been my strong point. So up inner woman we go and I am on the wheel of the dude in front of me. He is having shifter problems and can’t power up the hill so I have to slow up and wait for a place to pass. Finally I pass but by now I have let the 5th 6th etc place riders catch up. In the granny gear up inner woman in severe pain cussing the whole way up. Jim passes me on the way up and that’s the last time I saw him. I’m still in good position at this point and ready to descend inner woman. When I got to the rock garden I was trying to show off for some photographer on the side of the trail and unclipped. I couldn’t get back on the bike in time before several riders passed. I am now in about 10th position. Crap. Things are falling apart for me mentally.

Exiting spiderwoman and trying to navigate the rocks at the trail crossing, I darn near endo’ed and was surprised I didn’t bend the front wheel. Luckily I stayed vertical on the bike and was able to navigate through. Climbing out the big climb on midland mountain, I am still wondering when I will recover from spiderwoman. My lungs were on fire and my legs felt like watermelons. But I knew that once I could get my speed up and get in a consistent cadence, things would get a lot more comfortable. And indeed they did. I was able to regain several positions that I had lost on the fast sections and through crooked pine.

For the remainder of the race, I traded places several times with one other rider with a ETSU jersey on but he is the only person I saw. As we rolled along the fast section of stewardship we traded places several times…we must have ”on your left”-ed each other ten times as we rolled along. I was able to drop him for the final time on the climb up the switchbacks on the second lap. The rest of the race was solo for me and it felt great to cross the finish line.

Due to the shenanigans on spiderwoman, I honestly thought I was in about 8th or 9th position to finish the race. I was disappointed in the performance. But it turns out that I was racing the final lap with the ETSU guy for 5th place. I am glad I raced him for that position and was able to fend him off. It made the personal best 5th place finish that much sweeter. I had lots of fun which is what it is all about.

1 regret: The initial lead group pace was too slow. I should have jumped out into the lead early and then I wouldn't have gotten stuck on inner woman and my spiderwoman experience probably wouldn't have turned out so sloppy. Or it could have been sloppy as usual but wouldn't have mattered because I think I could have put some distance between me and 2nd place to make up for the sloppy performance. If I knew I was holding on to a top three finish after spiderwoman, I might have dug a little deeper to finish. But as it is, I don't think I left anything on the course...just got behind the eight ball a little by setling for the pace line instead of taking the lead when I could have.