With family in town Sunday morning, and my husband getting ready to leave for a business trip for the week, I opted to do a pre-dawn run with some friends, leaving plenty of time with family.
Sunday’s run was a hilly 10 miler around Greenville in preparation of my half-marathon in March. During the run, I learned one of the guys was training for the Big Sur Marathon in California this April. I am sure you all are more than familiar with the beauty of the Pacific One Highway… cliffs on one side, the drop to the Pacific Ocean on the other… winding coastal roads of pure spectacular beauty. I started reminiscing how Big Sur was my first marathon nearly 13 years ago and how it was such a spiritual journey for me…
On this same run, I was able to reminisce with the guys about my first real bike race the day before at Fork Shoals. I came to the realization… there isn’t anything spiritual about your first bike race… it’s all about “suck it up and don’t get dropped”!
So begins my journey as a cyclist…
On the line, the women 4’s thought we were in for two laps. Nope. Three laps, with all the women riding together. Ok. Did I have enough nutrition? I think so. Does this trump the plan Brady laid down for us during our warm up? Nope. She marked a few gals we needed to stay close to. Time to ride.
From the start of the race, the Team Headstrong ladies were in control. I could see ahead of me, Debbie, Sam and Giselle working together on the front. The first lap went by with an ok pace. Nothing crazy. I was positioned where I was feeling a bit of the yo-yo effect. To alleviate the situation, I moved up a bit as did KP. We were on the inside and I could see Weinaker and Brady to our left. (The marked girls were there too). We kept inching closer to our Team Headstrong teammates. But then, bam… pace picks up. Ok, don’t get dropped on the hills… or down hills… Ok, back to a steady pace and nearing the front.
By the third lap, I kept expecting the pace to pick up. Should I be doing something to help? Was this the calm before the storm? Debbie gave the play by play and sure enough it played out exactly as she had said. The group stayed together with a bit of acceleration and an attack up the last hill before the final kilometer. It was about there my hip flexors wanted to know when we were going to be done. I told myself to suck it up… it was all I could do.
By the 200m mark you could hear the clicking of gears and see the sprint starting to take form. Within seconds there was screaming and a crash but it appeared everyone was thankfully going to be ok.
I finished my first bike race and I didn’t get dropped!
Though I did do a bike race pre-baby, I am going to consider this my first true bike race. It was the first time I had ridden with only women. And it was the first time (in a long time) I felt like I was part of a team. We are pretty solid and I look forward to doing my part to help. Well done everyone!
Next up: Reedy River 10K
5 comments:
Loved the write-up.... to everyone else..... share your thoughts and experience....
Thanks, Lara! That was fun to read! I got dropped in my first open race which was somewhere around Spartanburg. You are already off to a better start :) !
Like Bird, I would love to hear more "thoughts and experiences". This blog site is perfect for that!
LARA! YOU DID SO AWESOME!! YOU HAVE THAT FIRE, THAT NO MATTER WHAT, YOU WERE GOING TO DO EVERYTHING HUMANLY POSSIBLE TO STAY WITH THE PACK! You should be very proud of yourself! I am proud of you! That was a huge stepping stone and learning curve to jump into a race like that. That was no baby race for sure. Great work! I'm looking forward to racing with you more!!
Thanks everyone. It was pretty exciting to be with you. This is going to be a fun year.
It was so cool to see you ride up to the front on the last lap and ask "What should I do?" I'm pretty sure I sat at the back the entire time during my first race. You didn't seem intimidated at all. Awesome!!!
Post a Comment