Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! Thank you for reading everyone, I appreciate your support! This was a very exciting weekend for me! This week was good, I got some good riding in and felt very good all week.
On Saturday, I came out of my comfort zone to try something different. My girl invited and encouraged me to do a Time Trial with her out in NJ. At first I thought it was silly to drive all that way to ride 10 miles but then I thought it’d be nice to do a race that is based solely on my ability. So we schlepped to NJ…..
It had to be the craziest day. We get to the address that we were instructed to go to and there was nothing there. It was a park. There were no cars and definitely no bikes. We looked it up and put the correct address in the GPS and it was 10 minutes away. We got to the correct lot and we were starting to getting ready when one of the guys we were with realized he didn’t have his shoes. We drove 2 hours to get there and he had no shoes!
I drank coffee in the car on our way there so, of course, I had to pee real bad. My girl n I stood on the porto potty line and every time the door opened we got a whiff. We knew it would be bad but this was an atrocity. I almost threw up, I gagged the entire time I was in there.
The start line was 8 miles from the lot where we parked and registered. My friends were still getting ready. It was 7:40. My girl was scheduled to start at 8:11, my start time was 8:12 and 30 seconds. I don’t ride as fast as she does so I told her I would head to the start to warm up and when they caught up to me I would ride in with them. Another guy we were with came with me. The guys were scheduled to start about 10 minutes after us. On the way out of the lot another friend joined us. The two of them helped me and another female participant get to the start. As we were leaving the lot our other friend told us he was able to borrow shoes. This guy must be extremely lucky!
I got to the start line with 4 minutes to spare. A couple minutes went by and my girl was still not there! The lady that was there called her number, 577. I told her that 577 was on her way. She gave me the look. With about a minute to spare, she showed up being pulled to the start by her husband at top speed. I signaled for her to get in front of me, I was #580. As soon as she got in front of me I yelled “577 is here”. They said “good”.
I thought I was going to vomit. I was so nervous. One by one, every 30 seconds, the ladies in front of me were dispatched. I popped a gel while I waited for my turn. I got to the start line. I never experienced someone holding me in place and, we all agreed, he did a poor job at it. I clipped both feet in, they counted down from 5 seconds and told me to go.
I started to pedal. In my nervousness I forgot to shift into a lighter gear! It was so hard to get moving. I stood and got a good rhythm going and I got in my drops. After a couple minutes I realized I was going a bit hard and backed it down a bit. I got passed. I went a couple more miles. I was looking down at my Garmin at my power readings and, when I looked back up, there was a deer! It didn’t just pass right in front of me but stood there looking at me. I had to stop pedaling. Then it passed in front of me and I started pedaling again. That f***ing deer! I lost seconds on that damn deer! Some time after that I was passed again. Another couple miles passed and my legs started to ache. Oh hell no! I went harder. I picked up speed. I was about 4 miles from the finish. I kept that pace up. When I hit the last mile I went harder. I was planning to do my standing sprint finish but, in my excitement, I had sensory overload. I wasn’t quite sure where the finish was and I blew past it for safe measure.
I joined my girl across the street and we cheered everyone as they rolled in. Once we were all back, we rolled back to the lot and awaited our results. My girl came in 2nd, I came in 6th. The fifth place finisher was 7 seconds before me. If it wasn’t for that f***ing deer….. The guys all did very well. They all ranked high. One of our guys came in first in his category!
We all went for a ride after. I was hurting from being still for so long. I also put the weight back on my bike to have supplies just in case. Also, I completely forgot to put on my chamois cream so I was really squirmy. I would’ve still been dropped by my friends but a girl can still make excuses…. I didn’t get dropped by just anyone, I was dropped by the best!
I now realize that although it was 10 miles, they were 10 of the most valuable miles I’ve ever ridden. Driving a couple hours to ride a few miles was well worth the trip. It really isn’t the quantity of miles, but the quality of those miles. I did a few things wrong that I wish I could change. Luckily I get a do-over. I’m going back this coming weekend to right all that I did wrong and do this thing! The only way to describe my feelings is that my inner me is awake and she is hungry for more. She wants some.
Sunday’s ride was really good. It was short but hilly. I felt an ache in a different part of my thighs that I’m used to but I had a good time and enjoyed the ride. I cut the ride short by about 3 miles when they made a turn to go up more hills. I didn’t feel like it, so I came back. Once back to the shop I went in and joined the race team. I’m ready to start a new chapter in my life. I’m ready to have real goals and go about attaining them.
I wanna thank my girl, #577, for encouraging me to start chasing my dreams. I’m a person that does but I was reluctant to get started. I was scared of disappointing myself. I’m not the fastest but I try really hard. I’m tired being afraid. I may not be the fastest but I’m not on the right track to becoming fast. I now have an entire community of people to learn from and we support each other. I got it going on!
BrokeLadyCyclist.com 