Archive for the ‘AFWC’ Tag
First Race of a Second Life, Done!
Well I can now call myself a racer again. I was nervous all day, though I don’t really know what for. I know that I’m very competitive and I think I was worried that I might fall lower on the list of finishers than I had expected. As fate would have it, my white whale showed up tonight. I really shouldn’t have anything against this girl except that she was probably the most competitive non-AFWC out there, she wears a vanderkitten kit that matches her bike, and she sat-on and out sprinted me at ToA last year. Ok, I have beef. So when I saw her, I knew I would be disappointed if I didn’t beat her.
I lined up next to the regular AFWC girls. When we saw how few non-AFWC women there were we decided to just constantly attack to make the race interesting. It got off to a very odd start when a few of the 10-14y boys decided to start in front of us. We finally got passed them and really started moving. Kim was the first to attack and I got on the train. It was hard but not killer. Then one of the juniors attacked and Kim came towards the back with me. This is when things started to get odd. One of the kids up front was treating this like a 100m dash and when he blew, he blew! He was totally in our way going around one of the turns and I just wasn’t willing to risk it. A gap had already formed and this kid just made it worse. I tried to use Kim and Meredith to bridge but when they caught one of the juniors attacked and I couldn’t hold it.
I settled into my race at a pace that was sustainable for the next 25 min. That’s right, I got dropped 5-min into the race. My only goal at this point was not letting VK catch me. Well she did and I could tell she was just sitting on m wheel. At one point I purposely slowed and she came around. At that point the game was on. I knew from ToA that her game was to sit in and then sprint. I knew she wasn’t strong on hills but that she would also be saving her energy for the sprint. I attacked her up the hill a few times but not consistently enough that she would be able to predict what I was going to do. I kept testing her to see where she would break.  I knew it would have to be a hard attack on the hill and that would hurt me too. I wasn’t sure if I should do it on the last lap or the second to last lap. I was worried that if I did it on the last lap I would be too tired to sprint. I thought if I did it on the second to last lap it might tire her out. In the end, I opted for the last lap. She seemed to be recovering just fine over the course of the lap.
We rolled up to the finish line with one to go and I knew we both knew the game. She knew I was going to attack up the hill and I knew she was going to sprint hard. I had let her come up the hill in front of me on that lap because I wanted to gauge how badly the hill was hurting her so she was still in front of me coming up to the finish line. We were about 10-ft away when the leaders passed us and crossed the finish line just in front of us. Our race was done and without even knowing it she had beat me. It was tough to take but I was very proud of my effort. I already can’t wait until next time.
Stories of Hope and the Picnic
Tomorrow marks 7-weeks since my surgery. My follow-up appointment is in 2-weeks. I have tried my best to stay positive about the outcome but I also know that much of it is a desperate show. I have to assume that things are going to be ok because I can’t cope if they’re not. Not having any control over your body is an emotional roller coaster. For every conversation I’ve had or article that I’ve read that gives me confidence that I’ll be back on the bike in a few months, there is an opposing conversation or article that makes me wonder if I’ll ever return to normality.
Most of my interactions lately have been very positive. Like Stephen sharing his story of surgery; Melissa sharing her stories of life after her ankle break and how similar her experience was to her friends, and Scott with his two ACL reconstructions. All of these interactions left me feeling like patience was al that stood between me and normalcy. The low point came yesterday at the Austin Flyers Picnic. It was put on by our sponsors, Texas Ortho, and I knew that some of the staff would be present. When I arrived, I was immediately greeted by one of the staff who asked me what happened. When he heard the prognosis, his face turned grim. “it’s a very difficult injury to recover from. It takes a very long timeâ€. The graveness of his voice was what struck me. Surgeons have seen everything, right? How is it that my injury, one that is supposedly extremely common, would cause this reaction. When I tried to ask him why it was so difficult to recover, was it pain, re-injury, stiffness, soft-tissue damage, his response was “Well, it’s just… healingâ€. It stayed with me the whole day, I was devastated.
I learned two things; the first is that if somebody sounds like they don’t know what they’re talking about, ignore them. It turns out this guy is not a doctor at all. I assumed he was because I’m used to the small offices that my mother –in-law works in where everybody except the nurses are doctors. I never should have assumed he would know anything about my injury. That’s what desperation does.
Finally, I gave up wearing my brace today. After two parties and hours of trying to design a Christmas card, my back was horribly stiff this morning. I have actually been moving it as much as I can with a broken leg. There have been a few positions that have caused popping and even a brief twang of what I would consider real back pain. I don’t know how much I should be concerned because it seems like the brace is doing far more damage than good at this point and I get my X-rays in 3 days now anyway. Still, I’m being good and logging everything so I can tell if it gets better or worse. The cycling position does not seem to cause any pain but it looks like I’ll be able to spend some time spinning, to be sure, before I have to make decisions about a new bike.