Openers and Race Day

Until yesterday the only openers I knew anything about was the kind that open my favorite brews. Marc invited me to do a road ride from his house the day before Fair Hill. He said we would do a hour and a half with some openers. I showed up and we headed out. It felt really weird being on my road bike since I hadn't ridden it in a few months. As we were rolling out I asked Marc, "what's an opener?" To which he replied, with a sly little smile on his face, We are going to do a 20 minute warm up then a 3 minute maximum effort, and we will do 3 of these. I must admit it wasn't what I expected but he has been doing them and it works for him so it couldn't hurt. It was what I thought it would be, very painful but in a good way. We rolled back into Marc's after 1:25 and I didn't feel spent, I actually felt good.

This had me extra excited to race today. It was also cool because the New York boys; Karl, Dan and Paul came down to stay with us. We had a nice meal at the Half Moon, which Marc and his wife Diane joined us for. I was rudely awakened at 5:00am by the sound of thunder and pouring rain. I was hopeful that Fair Hill was being spared this deluge but it was not the case. I made a couple of phone calls and food out the race was on.

It was good to see a lot of folks come out that hadn't been racing, Jay Jay who had a nice ride today and Paul who suffered a mechanical and had to pull out early. Finally they called us to the start line for staging, which was a joke. They didn't stage anybody. All the pros, experts and single speeders lined up for one big MASS start. They didn't even separate the age groups it was just total chaos. I was lucky to find myself on the front line and managed to get into the woods in the top 20. That didn't last long though. half hour in I started paying for my effort at the start. I tried to settle into my own groove knowing it was a long race. I never really felt good but I kept pushing hoping to start feeling good at some point. I was starting the first climb when I saw Marc fixing a flat, I felt for him because I know how bad he wanted this race. I also know he was the strongest guy in our class today. I pushed on eventually Todd caught and passed me then a little later Matt did the same. I was feeling a little better but the heat and humidity were killing me. I kept waiting to hear Marc come up behind me but he never did and rolled through the finish in 6th. I wasn't upset with 6th but I was hoping to do better. At least I finished and managed to talk my way into the prize list, which I must thank Randal for. As always (with the exception of the start) The Delaware Trail Spinners put on a class event, and the course wasn't that muddy considering the amount of rain the night before.

Well I must go continue my couch surfing.
Thanks for reading,
Buddy