legs? LEGS? ........where did you go?

Race Report: Gluek Road Race, August 26, 2006


So yeah, there was a race this weekend. Personally, I pretty much checked out of training after the State Road Race—my training log for July shows that I got on my bike exactly eight times in the entire month—but what the hey, I like road races, so I went.

The thing with not training, though, is it makes you suck, which was readily apparent when we hit “the hill” on the back side of the 12-mile course. Smart positioning could have saved me on this one, but smart positioning is not something I do well, and all the contenders were in front of me. So instead of "doing the drift" like a smart little bike racer, all the backwards drifting I did just opened up a gap. By the time I crested the hill, a group of seven had gotten away.

GW Julee and I worked our asses off trying to catch back on, and for the next half lap the gap at least didn’t get any bigger, but it didn’t get any smaller either. After a while we let them go. By that time, though, we could see that Idaho June had been dropped from the lead pack, so we had a rabbit. We chased her for half a lap…but behind us, a group of three was chasing us, and they caught us. And then we were five.


The five of us (which included my teammate Jess) sat up for a while after that and had a leisurely second trip up the hill, then went back to work chasing June. We caught her halfway through the third and final lap. She was cooked from riding solo in the wind for almost two laps, so she was only with us for fifteen or twenty minutes before dropping off again. The same group of five was still together as we approached the finish.

We could see Penelope riding solo in the distance, but with only two miles to go we had no chance of catching her. I don’t think I had the energy left to chase anyway, even if it had been reasonable—stupidly, Gabriella and I had ridden a WHOLE LAP for warmup, which was excessive for a road race and put my mileage for the day over 50. Fifty miles was perfectly reasonable earlier this spring, but I haven’t done anything over 35 in months. Damn that “not training makes you suck” thing. What a load of crap.

The finish line was a mere hundred yards after the final corner. I may have mentioned my feelings about corners before, no? Well, if you’re just joining us, I corner like an eighteen-wheeler. (Caution: this vehicle makes wide right turns.) I went way too wide on the corner, panicked about the centerline, overcorrected, and lost valuable seconds. By the time I got my shit together and started sprinting, my teammate Jess had a huge gap on me. I very nearly made it up—see the uber-dramatic photo, below—but she got me by a good 8-12 inches. Which was cool, she’s improved a ton this year, she deserved it. Even if she did call me a mean name when she saw how close I was.


So I got 8th. Out of 19. My rockstar teammate Cam took the win AGAIN, cementing her ownership of the cat 4 ROY for this year, and Alix and Maria got 4th and 5th. With Jess in 7th, we still snagged five of the top ten. And it is a pretty darn good thing that so many people are upgrading for next year, because the women’s 1/2/3 race in the afternoon had a grand total of five participants. Don’t worry, guys, we’ll save you!

And now I’ve shaken off the slump and am all rah-rah-let’s-race again, but it’s almost cross season and I don’t have a cross bike so I have to wait until April. The good news is, that gives me almost eight months to get the legs back. (Eight months?! Holy shit. Why did I do that math? Now I’m just sad.) On second thought, maybe I’ll just load up on pumpkin pie. That’s right, folks, Pie Season II is coming very very soon……