So the Quicksilver race, moved a block over and renamed "Ride Sally Ride", was a blast. I debated racing because our race was early and its a bit of a hike for me from B'more, but my teammates were convincing - they planned a team movie night (Sex And The City- loved it!) Friday night so I stayed at the Frat house in Silver Spring, which made for an easier morning. My teammates are good to me.
It was so humid at 730am we felt like we were swimming through the air. I have no idea how the guys in the later races managed to get through. By the time you guys were racing, Michelle and I were enjoying some sushi and a dip in the pool. Anyhoo. The race course was almost exactly the same as I remember the prior course. Wide open, slight rollers and three easily navigable corners. Quite a few of the local big-shots were up in Philly so I decided to play and see what I could do. I'm finally getting into the mindset that I'm here to play, not to just survive (reference again to my dismal 2007 issues). Our team set out to drive the pace, see who could hang on and see if we could break it up. We were super active with attacks, counters and more attacks. I managed to make a few splits happen, Leslie went in a few moves and the whole team helped to control the pace. A couple of (unnamed riders) were like shadows -every time I turned around, there was (unnamed riders) on my wheel. Much respect to the girls in the peloton ... the level of competition has gone up exponentially since I started playing with bikes ... but honestly, if you wanna play with the big girls, you're going to have to have the balls (pardon the french) to pull through in a break. You know who you are, no need to name names.
With 3 to go, we were gruppo compacto - lots of suffering in the pack, some girls just hanging on but together for the most part. I decided that I was going to see what happened ... so I took off like I meant it. I got a good gap through the last turn and came to the line with 2 to go and Jen Chang on my wheel. She was awesome - she took her pulls and kept saying that we could do this. Unfortunately for me, it was one dig too late ... I cracked with 1/2 lap to go. The pack swarmed us at the line but Jen was able to hold on for the win, while I nearly died holding onto 5th place. It was fun, frustrating and satisfying at the same time. You know that feeling you get when you're completely spent and you know you've given it your all ? That's exactly where I was.
I was frustrated that I missed it by 1/2K but it was well worth the effort. Leslie came through and pulled out 2nd and teammate Robin was right next to me at the finish to get 6th. Not too shabby, a good showing for Team CycleLife. Sometimes you need a race like that - one where you hang it all out and are spent and happy at the end. Dont get me wrong, I'd be happier if I'd have made it to the end and took the win, but this is probably a close 2nd to that feeling.
Michelle and I decided to get some food (mmm ... sushi) and head to her aunt's house to hang out at the pool for the afternoon. A nice, relaxing day, especially knowing that we didn't have to race on Sunday. Sara and Michelle both made the trek up to my place to ride with me. I had been at the frat house since Friday night, so Sunday morning my house was an oven since I hadn't turned on the AC while I was gone. All the better motivation to get out and get rolling ... we were out on the road by 1030am, later than we wanted to be but we were out late on Saturday night so it was the best we could do. Yes, we were actually out and about Saturday night instead of resting up for some silly race on Sunday. It was quite a novelty.
Anyway, I finally took my TT bike off the rack and put some wheels on it in an attempt to get used to it by this Saturday's Church Creek TT. I forgot how much I loved my TT bike. Except I had to jerry-rig the water bottle cages b/c the geometry is too small to truly house water bottles. And those water bottles were essential on Sunday- just ask Sara, who forgot her bottles on my dining room table. We had pity on her and stopped at the first gas station to get her set for the rest of the ride. Two and a half hours later we were back - exhausted and happy to be done for the day. A nice afternoon nap, some laundry and some grocery shopping ... and the weekend was gone, just like that.
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