Since last post, I did indeed race at the Independance Valley Road Race. I faired better than expected… I didn’t finish with the pack, but I definately finished stronger than I thought. On the first hill, someone pulled out of a pedal and stalled on the hill right in front of me. It quickly broke up the group. I got around him, but by a hair. I bridged up to the group, which may have been my mistake that ultimatedly led to being dropped off with about 1/3 of the group. After about a mile of riding in a pretty disorganized group, I called for 1 minute pulls or less, and we started riding in a nice steady pace and gaining speed. Although I wasn’t thinking about getting back into the main group, it was nice to be going faster than I could alone.
After about 20 miles of this, it was clear that some of the other riders were wearing out from the pace, and three of us led off on a hill. I kept nice and steady on this hill which felt great now that I was warmed up. I even passed a few people while sitting down! After this hill, I caught on with another rider and we paced each other along. Somewhere close to the last 10 miles of the ride, we were passed by the women’s leaders, and our Ladies in Green (Valley) were at the front. Never a more inspiring moment. This meant that they had made at least 5 minutes on us! Nice work!
in the end, I upped my pace, passed a few who had flagged out, and crossed the finish line feeling spent but proud.
