Saturday's Race and Vermont

Well, I'm not much better at blogging now that I've got extra time, but here's a quick one:

On Saturday morning I left Salisbury, CT with some of my stuff that I'm moving back to Middlebury, VT. I took Rte. 22 to get home, and stopped halfway there in Cambridge, NY, for the Balloon Festival (some big town gathering) which included a road race. I was on the wait list but they gave me a number as soon as I showed up. Money.

It was my first road race ever (only criteriums up to this point) and though I kept telling myself I just wanted to hang in the pack and work hard at the finish, what I really wanted to do was win. So near the end of the first of two 21-mile loops, a break went out and I was in it. We tried to stay away but got caught (pretty quickly actually, I realize now we weren't going very fast) and then it was a pack again.

That was, until about 5 miles from the finish at the one big climb (about one mile, not too bad for 2/3 of a mile and then very steep for the last little bit) when everything got strung out. I was not in very good shape and lost the leaders very quickly, and figured that I was essentially done for. But then I realized that most everyone else was cooked too, and so I found a little extra gas. After I crested the hill (in 12th or 13th place) I started working hard, and managed to pass a great deal of the field to finish 5th.

It was a good first experience with a road race, and I now know that I need to at least be good enough at climbing that I don't put myself out of contention. So yesterday I climbed over the Middlebury gap (HARD for me) and back. Tomorrow I'll go 75-80 miles and over the mountains again. Hard work, but it's made easier by the fact that my prize for finishing 5th was a big jug of recovery drink powder stuff. So now I can't be beat.

More to come - especially this weekend, with races on Saturday and Sunday.