Race Report

Ok - two races down - and still can't climb hills. Need to work on climbing, plus sprinting, plus endurance, plus... ok, just everything.

Sterling: Sterling was a great first race to do - a 3 lapper with a short but steeper than it looks hill. I was psyched to stay with the pack through the first lap, but didn't realize we were coming up on the steep hill, was at the back of the pack and promptly got dropped. Despite that, the pack remained within sight for 1/2 of the second lap, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't catch back on. So, for lap 3 I hooked up with Cathy, Julie and Stephanie from NEBC and finished strong, well actually weak - too little training and too much lactic acid made for a sad site of me struggling in my 12/27 to make it up the steep hill to the finish. Oh well, 23/26 was a good first start. Forgot the sunscreen and got sunburned too - hmm, maybe the sunburn caused me to struggle up the hill...

Mount Sunapee: Cold and rainy. Normally I would be mopey and not want to do the race, but I was actually psyched to race. Looking forward to seeing my NEBC friends and to doing better than at Sterling. Mission accomplished! I still got dropped on the first hill, but I had much better pack placement and managed to bike the 2nd half of the race by myself, but finished ahead of the girls I finished Sterling with. Thoughts during this race were: my shoes are too loose, need to tighten them; my toes are cold; ok, I can't feel my toes; why did I switch from my triple?; are my toes numb?; why did I switch from the triple?; ok, here come the pro men, there aren't that many of them, I wonder why, oh that's right it's raining and 45; my toes really are numb; ok, where is the next turn, am I on the right road?; ok, there's the rotary; my toes!!!; where do I go now?; there's Darcy cheering us on!; down shift, no more gears, sigh, why don't they make a 12/29?; finish line! 13/18

Next up, Lake Auburn and Great Falls.