Race Report: Charge Pond Training Series, B Race, 28. March 2009

Because I did not know what to expect, I was not feeling particularly Teutonic.

Normally, I show up to a race with some semblance of bloodlust (the knock-kneed nervousness is my cover-up, obviously). However, as I did not want to sacrifice the precision engineering of my new road rig to the unpredictable deities that govern the forces of physics in Cat 4/5 men's training races, I gave the chain and frame of (what is now) my commuter a quick once-over and wipe-down on Thursday, then turned the brunt of my attention to adjusting cleat position on the new bike and going out for Thai food with a former coworker who was in town for the evening. Friday evening I threw my prospective race duds in a bag, put on a movie, and called it a night.

Fast-forward to Saturday: the drive down was amusing. Some kids from MIT were caravaning down and we had a sort of peleton of cars going on Route 3. Considering the BMW drivers out for blood (wish I could have borrowed some of that mojo/entitlement) it was pretty impressive. Got to registration after driving over potholes in the park for seven minutes. Was told that bathrooms were back near where I'd come from, so I took a trip to the Gruenklo and hoped that the little leaves around me weren't poison ivy. Once that was finished, I pinned my number, did a quick bike prep, and rode out to warm up.

The course consisted of a 1.36 mile circuit of rolling hills, one sharp corner. My friend Geoff, whom I hadn't seen since 'cross season, was doing warmup laps as well, so we chatted a bit, then rolled over to the line.

The pack got off to a fast start, and I was in the back. They hit a high speed pretty fast, and I got spit off the back after one lap. Nancy got spit out after another lap or so, and later Kenton followed suit, so I intermittently worked with them and a couple other random people. I focused on two things: (1) thinking about what to do next despite feeling like I was about to puke and (2) to stave off the latter, resting intermittently in the paceline. It went okay despite sitting out a few laps: I think I averaged 21 including the stop-and-go and laps alone, and the race lasted about an hour. When the women's races start, my strength should be okay. We'll see in a couple weeks, I guess.