June 29th, 2008

Why hello there. It's been a while. That's probably a good thing.

You may find yourself wondering: how does one prepare for a state championship road race? I don't know -- ask the guy who won.

I had high hopes going in of at least a top ten, if not a medal and a jersey. My team did too, and they rode hard for me, but I couldn't hack it. I was feeling pretty decent for most of the day; but did I drink enough? did I eat enough? Nope. You see, I still get excited and forget to do these things from time to time. No excuses, but it happens.

It started out pretty well. Ken had warned me about getting stuck at the back on the hills in the first lap, so I jumped a bit from the start, and he and I got a good 15 second gap on the field. There's nothing like holding a gap at 18 miles an hour... We didn't want to sit off the front, but they weren't exactly coming to get us. We soft pedals for about a half lap until finally being absorbed, leaving just two over-eager juniors off the front (for about another half lap, I think).

The course was laid out so there was the start/finish, a right turn, a fairly hilly (for here) road, a right turn, a flat road, a sharp right, and a slightly rolling road that wiggled slightly back around to the start/finish. The finish was coming off of a pretty good downhill, so it was going to be fast -- I'd hit 42 after a quasi-leadout there a few weeks before, which is something for me.

I was moving around the pack well, avoiding the front, and doing well on the hills. I don't want to go into details, but I ended up needing to have a few words with a guy, who's actions resulted in me having to chase back on and close a slight gap to the field. The effort took it out of me (both physically and psychologically) and after getting caught behind a three-wide wall of larger blokes on the steepest section, I was stuck miserably off the back. Couldn't chase back on. The gap didn't grow at all for about a lap, but it sure didn't shrink either. Poor positioning - my fault.

During all of this, a storm rolled in. 40mph winds gusting to about 70 (I would guess). Torrential rain and some painful hail, and apparently a few lightning strikes in the huge field we were circling. I stuck it out and finished though, only to not be listed on the results. Such is Florida racing.


I'm on my way now to Boston, via New York City, for Longsjo, and I can't wait. I don't feel like I'm nearly as ready as I should be, but having never climbed a real hill before, let alone a mountain, I'm treating this more as a cycling adventure than an A priority race. I'll bet to see some good friends, have some good times. It'll be delightful. I'll let you know how it goes.