Category: W3/4
Field Size: 35
Length: 10 laps
Teammates: Josie, Emily, Nancy
Place: 12th
The course was shaped like a backwards L going clockwise, and directly after turn 3 was Cat's Hill. The hill is only one block long, but it's a 23 percent grade, followed by a false flat, a tiny downhill, a little up around a corner, another false flat, then a long bumpy descent into the final turn. We started a bit late, due to a crash earlier, but when we started it was fast. Going up the hill was pure torture for me, since I'm still fairly heavy due to my muscular build. It hurt less when I was in my lowest gear or two, but my heart rate was sky high no matter what, and the pace never let up so even on the downhill I couldn't recover much. Maybe halfway through (or less) a group of four riders broke away and they gained on the pack pretty steadily until we knew that we wouldn't catch them. I was in the main pack and I know that it was all that I could do to hang on, let alone try to chase. The pack wasn't working well together, but I think most of us were really giving it all we had. Throughout the race, we lost people pretty steadily. I think out of 35, only 19 finished, and I was the last or nearly in the pack at 12th place, so we were pretty broken up by the end.
A couple of laps from the end, I realized that the combination of heat and exhaustion from the hard work was making me feel nauseous, and it only got worse. After the finish, I headed straight for a patch of shade and sat down, since I was still breathing heavily and feeling just awful. I recognized the feeling, having been very familiar with it from crew (especially after erg tests), and I knew that it would pass soon enough. It was the first time that I'd pushed myself that hard on the bike though, and it actually rather confirms what I had been thinking lately, that I've been unintentionally holding back in most of my races so far. I know that I'm capable of pushing myself to the edge, since I did for this race, so I need to get used to doing that again. Also I need to train better and do more intervals, since I realized that I haven't done almost any hard intervals and that's exactly what I need to be better at this kind of race, and even most races. Anyway, it felt good to really push myself, though I was slightly disappointed that I wasn't able to do better in the race. I guess I just need to train a little better, and maybe lose a bit of weight if I want to attempt any more super hilly races.
Since the LGBRC was hosting the race, I stayed after the races to do cleanup duty. We got to take down all of the fencing and such. It was kind of hard work, but I'd had enough time to recover so I was able to make myself useful.
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