Starting to head up the finish hill.
Last Saturday was the Sterling Classic race put on by the Minuteman Road Club. I did this race last year, and in fact it was my first road race. Last year I remember being super nervous in the neutral rollout, as it was faster than I was used to riding and I was stuck in the middle of a bunch of people, unsure about riding in a pack.
Thankfully this year I had none of those feelings, and was quite comfortable on the start line, moving up next to my teammate Julie and leading the pack through the neutral zone. I hadn’t gotten as long of a warmup as I would have liked, but I felt decently ready for the starting hill. Part of my strategy was to start at the front before the hill, and let myself drift back while climbing it, as climbing isn’t one of my strong suits. This is exactly what happened, and at the top of the hill I was still with the pack. Through some rollers I was still on, but on the 2nd hill before the right turn I found myself saying goodbye to the pack, and it was the start of a 20+ mile solo ride.
Considering that I was dropped last year before the race technically started, I at least consider this some improvement.
Since I had done the race last year, I remembered most of the course and was able to fly down the backside before rt12, especially on the new pavement. After the right onto rt12 there was a bit of a headwind, more so than last year, and I struggled to keep up a decent pace. This went on for a couple of laps, then something marvelous happened…
At the start of the race I expected there to be 4 laps. I thought it was a 6 mile course, but in reality it’s a 8 mile course. The marvelous thing that happened was my teammate, Marissa, had just finished and took the shortcut back to rt12, coming up next to me and asking how my ride went.
“I’m still in it!” was my reply, “don’t I have a lap left?”
“Nope, we only do 3, 24 miles!”
“Ok, see ya!”
This was about 1/4 mile from the finish, so I tried to put the hammer down, went up the last climb and finished the race. My time was 1:30:09, whereas last year’s time was 1:41:37. Last year’s average speed was 14.5mph, and this year’s was 15.2. I finished second to last. Last year I was last.
So…an improvement! I got my ass handed to me trying to stay up on the climbs, so my coach says anaerobic and muscular endurance are prescribed. I’m going into my next base then build phases, too, so 7 hours on the bike this week, 8 the following and almost 9 after that.
After the race on Saturday we went out to Ryan’s parents place, and Sunday went to my parent’s place, where I got a 30 minute ride in with my sister. It was a nice change of pace just tooling around the neighborhood instead of beating myself up trying to stay with the pack.
Here’s some photos!
At the finish line
Right after the finish and happy it was over.
Zoe chilling out
Emily on her bike.
