Team Headstrong in the Midwest

Ok, Randall told me to update you all on what I have been up to. I went up to Indy this past week to visit my family one last time before Christmas, and to help my mom as she had surgery last Monday. On Sunday, August 8th, I raced a local crit. It was a .6 mile course with three turns, and one very technical almost 180 degree turn. When I showed up at registration, they told me I was the only women who registered. They told me I had to race cat 4 men under 35. So, for my first official circuit race I had to race cat 4 college guys. The first twelve minutes were extremely painful--I hung on, but it was all I had. Then the paced settled in and became somewhat manageable. Then we hit the preem (?-sp) lap. There was a break of five guys, and the guys in front of me weren't going. They told us if we got lapped we would get pulled, and I wasn't abt to let that happen. I went on the chase. I barely caught with everything I had (it took about .4 mi to catch)--unfortunately when I went, many jumped on my wheel. It settled in to a manageable pace again until the last couple laps. I position myself fifth with .3mi to go and headed on the inside track on the very technical turn. The guy in front of me went wide and then cut to the inside--I had to slam on my breaks to not nail him. Everyone started passing on the outside while I was stuck on the inside behind this guy who wouldn't go. Finally, on the last turn before the finish line another guy cut me off and I just had to follow him in. Craig said he heard me yell at that guy for almost taking me out--he said 'honey you got to understand, not one of those guys wanted to live with the thought of being beat by a girl, and they were going to do whatever it took to keep that from happening.' So I finished in the pack, but 14th overall. After a week of taking care of my mom, I decided to take my hand at a Ohio RR on the way back to SC. I had been warned about these Ohioan girls. They lived up to their reputation. The field was small but intense. This race had way less climbing than FB, but it hurt worse. The course was a 10 mile looped course for a total of 40mi. It was a women's open, and three of the women were very good. Within the first climb--(abt 2 miles in) that was 2 mi long, there was attack after attack. After the climb, there was rollers, and then a sharp winding decent on the worst roads I have ever seen--I really thought I was going to wipe out. The last 5 mi on the looped course was a very long slight uphill with a headwind. At this point there were four us in the break. They started a rotating pace, but when I got up there they left me there and would not come up to pull. Finally, they waited until they thought I was tired and attacked me. I responded and we went through the same thing again when I started pulling they wouldn't help, and then they attacked again. I barely caught, but I was really feeling it. This went on and on until we hit the climb on the second lap. One of the girls tried to break and I noticed the other two couldn't respond--I had a little, but not much. I went after her, but she kept such a hard pace on that climb I couldn't hang after she had intentionally used up my legs on the first lap. I kept her in my sights for the rest of that lap and the next, but I couldn't catch her. I finished the last lap all by myself--knowing she was ahead, and worrying that the other two could catch if they started working together. I finished second overall, and first for cat 4. I was told I finished 50 seconds behind the leader and 5+ minutes in front of the next girl (finished in 2 hours). Anyway, all the Ohioans wanted to know who was Team Headstrong--so between the team's European adventures and all of our southeast races, and now racing the midwest--our name is getting out there!
Kristi Stratton
ps Congrats to all for Master's Nationals. The gal that won today knew all about Giselle!