The fast, the slow, and the dirty; Memorial Day weekend (Part 1)
Memorial Day weekend marks the 2-week point to Tulsa and, for me, was a big opportunity to test my legs in an aggressive 2-day race setting. The original plan was to race Bike the Bricks followed by the Age-Based crit championship. With only 5-days away, not many people were signed up for the age-based crit though so I made a last minute change to race the driveway as well. I actually didn’t really care if I raced the Age-based but since I wasn’t going to drive home last Friday it seemed reasonable to do the race anyway. Plus it was a back up for if something went bad at BtB; where crashes are common.
I wasn’t expecting great results because it was a really hard course and I had to work registration for 3-hours prior to my race. I warmed up feeling ok but not great. My goal was to try to get a prime or two and stay on for the finish. The race was fast! They called the first men’s prime quickly. Kirsten and I moved to the front in anticipation for the women’s prime that would likely follow. Instead, they called a back-2-back men’s prime (doh!). We went around again (very quickly) then moved to the front again for what would surely be our prime. Can you smell these matches burning? Well for the first time I ever remember it was back-2-back-2-back primes for the men. By the time our prime, 2-deep, came around we were exhausted. My lane got closed but I saw Kirsten got up the side and get the 2nd of the 2-deep. After that, she was gone. I was nowhere near the second prime. At some point I had to pull Kim back up to the pack as it started to shatter. Turns out it would come back together anyway but with her jersey on the line we couldn’t risk it. When the finish came it was strung out and shattered. I was off the back riding with the shrapnel when I see Suzy come by me. I grabbed her wheel as we flew past Amber and then Chelsea. I tried to sprint past Suzy but my lane closed before I could. She took 2nd and I took 3rd. I good reminder to never give up.
Friday’s BtB race was to start at 7:50; same time as the driveway so I figured my prep would be similar. I took a half day because there was so much to do but didn’t go in until 10:00. I have a really hard time sleeping after the driveway and with the stress of getting ready for BtB, I didn’t get to sleep until 1:30AM; well past my bedtime. The plan was to leave work by 1:30PM after putting in a few hours at work. The drive is 3.5 hours with no traffic. I would be hitting D-town at rush hour on the Friday before Memorial day so I allotted an extra 1.5 hours. The drive ended up taking me almost 6-hours (including rest-stops). I arrived frazzled, had no idea where to park, where reg was, where the bathroom was. I parked far away rather than get stuck down a closed road, rode to registration, back to my car. Got on the trainer for a few min, went to use the restroom, and almost missed my race start as I could not find the staging area. I tried to stay calm and get my HR down and think clearly. The first lap was a $100 prime so was started off fast. I got on McRea’s wheel thinking she would pull me where I needed to be. As we came around the one inside corner a girl in front of me went down, then 2-more. I slammed on my breaks and managed to keep it upright. I did not, however, put a foot down so I ended up chasing. McRea put a foot down. I chased with a few unorganized girls for a lap and a half before dropping off of them. I did two and a half more laps on my own before getting pulled; about 10-min into the race.  There really aren’t any words for how pissed I was.
The age-based race was now my chance to get my second day of hard racing in. We got to James brothers house late and hung out talking for a little bit. This is when I found out I would be sleeping on a cot. Not a huge deal I thought, it was a really nice cot and it was really nice of them to put me up. 30-min after everybody had gone to bed though; I realized I was in trouble. All I had was a sleeping bag so my temperature options were cold or hot. I really just needed a blanket. I tossed and turned; waking up sweaty or shivering and swapping my sleeping bag accordingly. We got to the race in plenty of time but I had no water, no ice, no real preparation at all because I had followed James and Rhe there and didn’t get to stop at a gas station. The race was in an office park so it was all pavement, sun, and wind; ohh the wind! Something like 15mph sustained with gusts. The race was strung out from the start. I kept telling myself I needed to move up so 2-laps in I used one of the long straight-aways to move up, right into a head-wind which turned quickly into a cross wind. Much faster than I moved up I went backwards.  I rode with Rhe and a cat4 for a few laps until my back seized up (most likely the effect of dehydration, long drives, and cot sleeping). I could hardly pedal anymore and, just before we got pulled at 32-min, I dropped to last place.
It was so difficult to not feel completely defeated. The worst is that I then stuck my big foot in my mouth and really upset Rhe. It was an emotional weekend that forced much introspection with Tulsa coming up. I suppose only time will tell how this will go.