It's been two years since I last did a time trail and about 5 years since my first. I quickly remembered not to be intimidated by all the 0% body fat bodies, team uniforms and aerodynamic everything. I was there to ride my own ride and do the best I could do...not compare myself to everyone else.
I was quickly greeted by very friendly volunteers at registration and we all had a good laugh when it seemed my registration showed me being 31 yrs old. Maybe in dog years. Also my fellow competitors in the parking lot were smiling and greeted me with a friendly hello and "have a good race."
I got my bike ready and headed out to warm up before my start time of 9:01am. I had an hour and wanted to get in 10 miles or so in. I headed down the road into the wind. That was a rude awakening. The 18+ mph gusts were knocking me around. I was a little leery hanging out in my aero bars, but eventually I got used to it.
It was 8:50am so I headed over to the start and got in line. You go by bib number and they send you off every 30 seconds. You chat with your fellow cyclists, down some GU, and checkout each others equipment...bikes that is. Okay, some of the guys were nice to look at in their skin suits. But then this older guy, with about 40 pounds to lose, squeezed into a skin suit, wearing a TT helmet approaches me. Why me? He goes "What's my number?" I just rolled my eyes because his bib number was "69". I told him his number and said "you just wanted to hear me say 69 didn't you?" He plead innocent. But it made for a good laugh and cut the tension.
It was soon my turn on the start line and off I went. I was hoping to average 19mph for the 30K, but to be honest I didn't know what I could maintain. I tried to keep it over 20 mph as much as I could. It was easy with the tail wind but definitely more challenging with the head and cross winds. Turning the corners you almost got blown over.
At one point in the race I heard this loud noise coming up behind me. Many of the bikes have a solid rear wheel so they can sound like a car or even a freight train coming up on you. I had to smile as this one tandem passed me. I was honored to see them fly past. This was a very special team and the only tandem on the course. The man in the back was blind. He has a sighted rider in the front. I can only imagine the freedom he feels when he gets on a bike. I know the joy I feel so I'm sure it's 1000 times more joyful for him.
I crossed the finish line pretty spent but felt good about the race. Final stats were:
Avg. speed - 19.7 mph
Max. speed - 30.6 mph
Distance - 30K
kJ - 578
Avg heart rate - 164 bpm
Avg cadence - 79 rpm (Very exciting as I've been trying to increase this number)
I did bring home some hardware. Second place. But truth be told there were only 2 women in my age group. As I've written in a previous post, how can we get more women in the game? Today's race was dominated by men. I'd say 95% of the 160 entrants were male.
I'm thrilled I got up early and went out and raced a good race. Vermonster proved to be a great ride, can I compare her to California Chrome? My next race is July 12 which is a 2 mile open water swim. This will be a good test to see how prepared I am for August.
I appreciate everyone's Facebook posts, texts, emails and calls. Your encouragement and friendship mean the world to me.
Enjoy the ride...I did today!
Sheri
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