Looking around at the starting line, there were no other women in my category. Dang. It’s hard enough to stay motivated during a race, let alone when you’re not racing anyone. However, I’m focused on becoming an “Expert” rider this year, and I knew the lap times I would need to be competitive in that category. Thus, I began my race with seven sport men.
I’d only gotten a few hours of sleep that night, mainly due to the time change. Something felt a little off going into my warmup. I didn’t feel bad, I just didn’t feel right. Thinking about the importance of this race I told myself “That’s okay, just have fun on your bike”. My spirits were high, bike was in good working order, and I’d mentally prepared to be easy on the shifting.
Speaking of shifting, allow me to digress for a sentence or two; I love any opportunity to yap about the technicals of riding. When riding in mud, one must remember to float like a butterfly, and spin like a paddleboat. One must also remember that when your chain and rear derailleur are covered in mud, the system will tend towards chaos, not towards shifting well. Thus, the goal is to finesse your shifters, be gentle with them....buy them dinner first. (Or I guess you could just ride a singlespeed). The end goal for this race: KEEP THE CHAIN ON THE BIKE.
I feel pretty solid on my homework going into the race. I was prepared for steep climbs, creek crossings, bottom-less mud pits (more like the La Brea Tarpits), and lots of big dudes pausing right in front of me on a climb. I had no complaints about my bike, or about any issues during the race. My only problem comes from not truly knowing how I will compare to other women in my category.
To help with this last dilemma I’ve done an analysis of sorts. My finishing time was about 2 hours 16 minutes. This would have placed me as 4th out of 8 in the Sport men my age. The winning expert women’s time was 2 hours 3 minutes, for an average of 10.24 mph (kinda funny huh, when you compare it to road racing averages). My average speed was 9.39 mph. When I look at it this way, I felt like a winner. More importantly, I feel like this race was hugely successful for many reasons.
Oh I forgot, the real exciting part. With about 1.5 miles to go, I hadn’t been passed by any women during the race, and had actually managed to pass some of the women who had started earlier than me. And then all of a sudden, she passed me. HOLY CRAP! I was already in so much pain, and was just trying to finish without the motivation of a bunny. However, this chica passing me lit a fire under my a** and boy did I chase. I don’t have a lot of experience being aggressive (in a good-sportsmanship way), but I pushed, passed, and held down my lead (although we weren’t in the same category) till the very end.
This last bit was a huge accomplishment for me. During cross season last year I felt a big weakness was my ability to stay motivated when passed. Now I realize that I’ve done my homework enough to keep working till the end, and maintain my lead.
Garmin Geekery: http://connect.garmin.com/
