First Race of 2008

Yesterday was the King of Burlingame MTB Time Trial in Charlestown, RI. I signed up a few weeks ago when I realized that I'd be missing a bunch of races in April due to "Family Cruise". The race came a little early for me. My training hasn't been exactly to plan due to work/kitchen renovation/lousy weather/work travel and other events conspiring against me. I figured by signing up for this race, I'd put a stake in the ground and feel at least somewhat compelled to not embarrass myself.

Drove down to RI very early in the morning. Geez - last year, Beginner races were always at 9am. This race had Sport (my new division) at 9am and Beginners at 11:30am. What's up with that? Low clouds, slight drizzle, and temps hovering around 40. RI for me is synonymous with college. As I passed signs for University of Rhode Island, I had the little diddy we used to chant in the dugout when we played them pounding through my head : "U-R-I! U-R-I! U-R-I-N-E!" (And, of course, the response from their dugout was "What's the color of Brown? S-H-I-T". Potty humor at the college level.)

Arrived at the race a little too late to do a pre-ride of the entire course. Rode about two miles in and then backtracked back. The first mile had probably the most technical sections in it: a couple of rock gardens, a couple of stream crossings (about 1/2 wheel deep), a few logs but nothing terribly hard. There was one uphill rock garden that I tried a few times and rode successfully about 80% of my attempts after I figured out a good line.

Since it was a TT format, I didn't have to worry so much about being forced off my line, getting the hole shot, etc. My goal for the race was 1) finish 2) try to actually stay on my bike 3) catch the woman in front of me 4) don't let the woman behind me catch me 5) finish in 45 min. (I had looked up times from last year and settled on that being a decent time for me to shoot for.)

My division was small - only 5 of us. They started the men first - everyone going off at 30 sec intervals. Took about 30 min before they worked their way through all the guys and started the women. First woman goes off, 30 sec later it was my turn. I caught the first woman in probably less than 5 minutes in. About a mile in I hit the uphill rock garden. No one around, had the line I wanted and there was a small gap near the top behind two rocks. Wham! I whacked one of my pedals into the rock ("Your feet, Teri! Be aware of the position of your feet!" - I tend to talk to myself A LOT out there.) I didn't totally fall but kind of stumbled down the rock pile, lost momentum and then had to run up the rest of the hill. That's when the woman who started behind me caught me. Wah! Ok, get back on and use her as a rabbit. Go hard for her. Somewhere in the next mile, I got passed by the woman rider who started 4th. Grrrrrr..... But I could still see both of them ahead of me.

Around 3 miles in, there was a series of about 4 drop offs. None were truly nasty but they were about 2-3 foot drops. A single one is fine but given there wasn't much distance between them (10 feet or so?) they freaked me out a bit. Plus, I hit them with some speed since I hadn't ridden this part of the course so they came up a tad unexpectedly. I almost endo'd on the first one and quickly thought, "Better get my butt back for the next one." I over compensated a bit and went over the remaining ones like Missy Giove demonstrates in this picture here.

Now, one thing to be pointed out. Her back tire isn't buzzing her butt like this rookie's was. I have never been on that position on my mtb - not so sure I like having the saddle under my chest - and all I could think about was if I didn't get up, each of these landings were going to hurt. I also thought the tire had a great chance of wearing a hole right through the chamois and that definitely wouldn't be pleasant. :)

As I (successfully) landed the last drop-off, I said aloud, "Well...OK, then!" and my one happy moment was shattered by a "On your left!" as the woman who started last passed me. Plus, I thought she must have been laughing herself silly watching me negotiate that stretch. Oh, well. Onward.

The rest of the course was pretty much just fire road and a series of wooden bridges through a bog. I didn't have much left at that point. I just put it in the big ring and rode as fast as I could which felt fast to me but obviously wasn't good enough since none of the women who passed me could be seen ahead.

Finished in about 47 minutes. Haven't seen official results yet but I believe I finished 4th out of 5 starters. ~sigh. Welcome to the sport division. I did have fun, though. And it felt SO great to be out on the trails again even if the weather was nasty.

Details of the ride can be found here: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5328072