So Saturday wasn't fun, maybe it was, I can't decide

I did my race. I was really confident going into it. I'd been riding well, getting some good mileage and results, and well, it wasn't a great day. It's not that I had an off day, I just couldn't have done much more, or much differently. So, I have to deal with my physical limitations.

I can't climb super steep hills very well. Part of the problem this time was that I didn't have a low enough gear. The other part of the problem is that at 5'10-11" and 166lbs, I'm still a little too heavy to have a good power to weight ratio. Which means I should probably not eat chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream ever again, but once in awhile you just gotta have it.

The race was hard. The course was amazing, 55 miles of up, down, turn, turn yourself inside out racing. I was actually pretty frisky in the beginning of the race, riding off the front as a test on the first dirt road section (oh how that was cool) and leading the race through town at the end of a short circuit. Then we hit the big climbs. I was ok on the first one, staying up front. The second dirt climb was another story. It was about 23% and dirt. Stand up, your rear wheel slips, sit back and your front wheel comes up off the ground. I was able to get up it, but not much more than that.

Once over that nightmare I chased really hard and caught one of my two team mates in the race with me. The other one was way behind us. We worked together and kept catching people until we had a chase group of over 20 people. Of course, once a group gets that big, you have the brainless wonders who just sit in and don't do their share of work. Then those jerks have the nerve to attack us. I was having none of that, since I'm still convinced that the second group ahead of us was the lead of the race at one point.

But, I decided to blow out the deadwood and warned my team mate Rob that next time through I was going to do a "hellacious pull". Which is exactly what I did. I jumped the pace up from 23mph to over 32mph for over 2 miles. Not only did we gain quite a bit of ground on the leaders, we also blew out all the slackers. But then the impetus left my group as the race wore on and people got tired and resigned themselves to just finishing.

After all the dirt sections, the thigh burning climbs, the searing sun (it was over 8o in the sun and no humidity, and the air was over 70, all this only a few miles from Vermont) I was in a group heading for the finish. We came into town and I got boxed in during the sprint, so had to settle for 4th in my group and 34th overall out of 63 starters. But we were 14 minutes behind the winner!!! How embarassing. Shameful, even.

Sunday was brunch with my brother's family and aunt and uncle, then back to my brother's house. I ended up taking more things to the storage unit for the ballet fundraiser with my brother, and then on the trampoline in the backyard. My nieces and I were a little crazy, but that's what 9 and 11 year olds are supposed to do, right?

Pretty simple. Now it's time for me to get more sorting and removing done. Only 10 more days until bliss...

Here's a link to a pic from a photographer's website from the race. I'm on the green bike leading the group, and yes, I know my lack of a tan is blinding, as pointed out by someone...

http://www.printroom.com/ViewgalleryPhoto.asp?userid=mgy44&gallery_id=363628&image_id=80