A Race Report - Finally!

Up until Saturday afternoon, I was undecided about doing Pat's Peak. I knew I'd get my butt kicked and there'd be lots of climbing (about 900ft/lap). On the other hand, it was time to get back out there and do some races. After all, I even qualified for Nationals so if I planned on going to Mt. Snow, I better at least get a few practice races in.

And in true "I'm still not taking racing seriously" mode, I shunned my usual pre-race dinner and opted for Mexican food and tequila after eating a bucket of popcorn at the movies. Definitely not a good idea.

Having spent most of the spring slacking off, this was only my second race all season. Goals were modest: 1) finish 2) don’t get caught by the expert men’s field that went off two hours after me . 3) Do a better job pacing myself; don’t get sucked into going out too fast and blowing up. 4) keep the Mexican food and tequila from the night before down. I accomplished all four.

Before the race, Cathy and I went out to warm up. I got caught up behind someone in the first bit of singletrack and when I finally caught up to her, she was walking and said, “My race is over.” Turns out her derailleur just snapped off. ☹ At the start line, the field was visibly relieved when they heard about Cathy’s bad luck (and their good luck.) Turns out that the NEBC women are making a name for themselves. While waiting for the start, I was quizzed:

Random rider: “Who are you? Are you the fast one that was at Coyote Hill ?”
Me: “No, that was Carrie.”
Random rider: “Oh! You must be the one from Brialee.”
Me: “No, that’s Cathy.”
Random rider: “Have you done any races?”
Me: “I did Winding Trails.”
Random rider: “Oh! You’re one of those two SUPER fast ones.”
Me: “No, that’s Cathy and Cris.” (realized later Cris wasn’t there so I’m not sure who she meant. Certainly not me as I came in DFL that race.)

Given the uphill start, I didn’t totally gun it at the whistle (see goal 3). Hit the reservoir about 5th place. Was passed by 2 or 3 riders on the long uphill to the ski lift. At the end of the first lap, Cathy yelled to me, “You’re in 4th! THAT’s 3rd right there!” and pointed at the rider about 20 yards in front of me. I picked up the pace and pulled along side that rider on the uphill near the feed zone. She looked over at me and asked, “You going to move over this time when I say on your left?” I thought she was kidding as I like to think I’m a pretty fair rider and had I heard her would have moved over if I had room on the trail. But she looked pretty serious. I decided to just eliminate the issue by putting as much distance between us as possible and sprinted up the rest of the hill, around the reservoir and through the first section of singletrack. Never saw her again.

The rest of the race I was pretty much on my own except for one woman I would leap frog. I passed her on the climbs and she descended faster than me (really need to work on that.) On the last climb, I couldn’t take it anymore and again accelerated around her and put enough distance between us so she wouldn’t catch me on the long twisty downhill section. Finished 3rd in the 35+ age group. Thanks to Cathy for the intel during the race. It made all the difference knowing where I was at.