Teammates: Chris D, Darrel in 35A, Steve Stewart on sidelines watching
Friendly rivals: Cody and Jeremy in juniors, Curt, Greg, Murray in 35B, Alden, Travis and Gregg in C's.
It was about 35 degrees when I showed up so I wore two pairs of arm warmers, thick Sheila Moon knee warmers and a vest and was still a bit chilly during the four warmup laps.
Did a lap on the 40-12/25 bike with 32 mm tires and it felt fast but hard going in the second minor hill up to the road crossing so I switched to the 44/34-12/25 bike with 42mm tires ( but managed to just use the big ring for four of five laps...) Went out first with 38 PSI for a couple of laps and the noise of the tires rubbing on the long pavement sections reminded me of the worse rolling resistance, plus it would be faster to run more of the runup than relying on lower tire pressure to allow me to ride more so I upped the pressure to 42 PSI. Still not one flat during a race this year. I did mis shift one time to the small ring and threw the chain off during the hill before the long run up so I quit trying to shift the front after that.
I am such a klutz that while I was pinning on Alden's number I managed to fall over and spike myself in the butt with my STI lever and get a really large bruise as part of my warmup. This made it hurt every time I pedaled with my right leg. This hurts so much I am not sure if I am racing tomorrow.
Went out really hard and attempted to stay with the guys that I went into the first hill with and really blew hard on the second lap. At this point Greg passed me back and when I tried to sit on his wheel on the flats could not do anything so I had to do the long paved section solo. The short paved hill really killed my legs for the long runup that followed and this made it hard to get in to any sort of rhythm as I am usually stronger on the run. I had to spend the third *and* fourth lap sort of recovering then Jeremy and Cody passed me ( unusually not the first junior as an overzealous C forced Jeremy to crash into a curb) and finally Curt passed, and we had to slow on the fast downhill due to a hurt rider semi-blocking the double track. I was able to follow at a distance but doing the long flat sections solo was mentally taxing. Gregg passed me on the last time up the long runup but he was walking the barriers so I passed him back and he passed me a final time on the pavement at the top of the course. Seeing Gregg and Curt just ahead finally motivated me to push hard on the last lap but was able 20 meters short at the line and I felt like I had tried really hard for most of the race and didn't make any major technical mistakes after learning the course on the four warmup laps, just was slow. :)
P: 175
S: 11.9
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