I managed to actually arrive at the race with time to spare to warm up. Funny thing though, as I was warming up all the nature surrounding me gave me the call of nature. I had to go but needed to be at the line in 4 minutes! Well, zoomed over to the bathrooms and did some business. Zoomed over to the starting area and, as I was pulling up, I heard "last call for George Mason." Oops, well it was 10 seconds before my start. Yelled out 'here.' Got in position and the guy holding me got ready and off I went. It's nice to not sit there and build up the pre-race nerves but it was way too close.
I was a little disappointed because I didn't have my disk wheel back from Zipp (I had to send it off after damaging it at the Fisk Knob TT). The wind was brisk at about 15km from the south east but I would have used the 1080/900 combo if I had them. Well, just went with my 404s which are totally reliable for racing or for windier tt'ing.
The race was what exactly what I had expected. I knew that to get into contention to win, I needed to pull off 5 minute laps and finish in about 30 minutes. That's not what you'd expect from someone who races in the 'clydesdale' class when possible! My goal was to beat my last time and hopefully achieve a better time. First lap seemed fast to me but when I crossed
the starting line, I had used 5:30. Ummm, already down 30 seconds. Second lap seemed a lot harder with stronger winds but when I crossed the time indicated another 5:30 lap exactly.I started to do the calculations and I figured if I kept the pace, I would get a 33:00 minute time. Not too bad and it would be a good improvement over my 2009 time. Well, the third lap seemed even harder. I started in with the all the self-talk: keep going, you can give a little more, almost half-way done, everyone else is hurting and so on. All this didn't seem to motivate me because when I crossed the starting line again, it was a 6:00 minute lap! I was getting slower....
Ouch, that hurt and put beating the 2009 time in jeopardy. I'm not sure if that made a difference or the fact that someone had passed me that I had passed, and we repeated this on 4 of the 6 laps (meaning he
caught up to me and had a better time!). I think I just put it to the grindstone as my fourth lap clocked in at an even 5:00. Nice, I finally got a lap to be proud of and, doing the calculations in my head, I now only needed to put in 2 x 4 minute laps to get in contention for the podium.....yeah, good luck on that one.I'm not sure that whether this had a negative effect or not. I pushed hard, thinking about exactly what I would do on the next lap and tried to do a shadow final lap. But, I clocked the 5th lap in at 5:25. A good lap for me.
Well, it is easy to use that self-talk to get going but to get your body to do what you try and tell it when you're getting tired, it's just plain hard. I pushed as much as I could on the final
lap. A fresh rider past me on the 5th lap and I picked him as my rabbit. I stayed about 300 metres behind him after he passed but used him to pace. On the 6th lap, I was passing one rider when 2 riders passed me. One of the riders was the guy who I was going back and forth with. The other was a faster fresh rider. I moved to a line left of the slower rider but with enough room for the 2 other guys to pass. As the second guy passed, I pulled out left of him and jumped, knowing full well that this turn was where the wind would start getting behind me. I pushed with everything and even passed the fresh faster guy and, then as the finishing line approached, I jumped and sprinted to the finish with everything I had left. I just kept telling myself that I could rest after I crossed the line. Nice last lap at 5:10.Overall, my total time ended up being 32:35 with an average speed of 39.2 kph. I think a good improvement over my 2009 time (using the same bike and wheels with the only equipment change being my skinsuit). But, I didn't get to the podium this time as my age group, now the 45-54 group, had some really good times posted. I ended up in 9th in my age group and 56th overall. I have to admit that I'm pleased with the results, the time and overall placing but would have liked to been higher in my age category. Now that I got 2 5:00 minute laps in and 2 more under 5:30, I'm sure I can improve a lot next year....guess we'll have to see...
Images from Steve Balogh.
Full results at:frederic james LLC