Not Bad For March...

About 3-4 weeks ago Marc sent out an email looking for someone to do a 6 hour race with. Not knowing anything about the course or venue, I quickly responded yes.

 Yesterday we were on the road by 6:00 am with a goal of a top 10 finish and with some luck squeaking into  the top 5. Marc got a great start and finished 3rd on the first lap. This set me up for a nice clear path. I felt great on lap 1. I even caught a dozen or so 3 hour racers that started a half hour after us.

 Marc goes out and lays down another solid lap. I take off and still felt pretty good, but that didn't last long. Not sure if it was the cold air, or hard efforts in March, but I started to feel the pangs of leg cramps. Sure enough on one short steep little stretch they struck I managed to work through them, but knew my next lap was going to hurt.

 Marc comes in from his third and final lap and tells me to stay steady and finish this thing off. This time my legs hurt from the start, I was hoping they would loosen a bit, but know such luck. The cramps reared their ugly head once again. Being on a single speed, it was hard to go easy and get rid of them. I found I had to stay in the saddle on the hills to keep them at bay.

 I was managing fine until the end of the lap when a guy passed me just before the field heading to the finish. It took me a few minutes to realize, he was in our class. Fuck, I put my head down and bridged back up to him. I heard Marc yell, "You have to get this". My legs were on the verge of locking up, but I attacked anyway. Some how I got a small gap, and the guy didn't seem to respond and slipped in 7 seconds ahead of him which turned out to be the winning move.

  As I laid on the ground with my legs screaming from cramps, Marc says that sprint was for second. I thought we won, but wasn't sure. After we saw the results and found out we won, neither of us could believe it. Not what we expected racing in March, but I will certainly take it. Congrats to Mayhew and Eric as well as Jen and Melissa, who were part of our little compound, for taking the win in there classes as well.

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Cheers,

Buddy