Did my best...

I think I figured out why people put graffiti on bathroom walls....they are writing to their congressmen.

Well, the road race season in Nebraska is officially over. This past weekend hosted the state championship road and criterium races. The objective was to have improved myself since the beginning of the season, which I started a couple months late. I can honestly say, objective completed.

SATURDAY
This was the road race out of Elmwood, NE which went through Murdock and South Bend, NE. Originally, the cat 5 racers were to do 3 laps for a total of 45 miles. Instead, at the start line they announced that they were cutting out one lap so we only had to do 2, which gave us a racing distance of 35 miles. I lined up with my fellow teamFIRE members Aaron, Adrian, and Emory and proceeded out on the 7 mile neutral roll out. My main objective was to stay inside the pack, save energy, and try to stay with them as long as I could.

Well, it was working, I wasn't expending copious amounts of energy and my breathing was nice and
easy. Then we reached South Bend and for some reason I cannot fathom, I was in the front of the pack and doing the pulling. Not what I wanted, I was trying to slow down and get someone else to pull but nobody was having it. Then we came upon a nice little hill. These are still my major weakness, I am not strong climber. Halfway up the hill the pack flowed around me like a stream flows around a rock. I was able to catch back onto the back for a while until we hit another hill. At this point, catching up was not a possibility. I decided at this time to just keep pushing myself and turn this thing into a personal "time trial". There were some other people who fell off the pack. I was able to catch up to them and pass them. I came upon some others and did some short pulls and drafts with them. The decision to just keep pushing was mine, I wanted to see what new level my fitness has achieved.

The last 7 mile stretch was just plain brutal. There was a very strong head wind, not to mention all the hills. At this point I was kicking myself on not working with the people behind me. Thoughts of drafting were floating in my head like visions of sugar plums.

One the final turn towards the finish, someone came up and passed me. I wasn't going to have any of this, so I stood up and started cranking it out. After about three or four good cranks my legs said, "What the hell are you doing? Sit your butt down!!!" I obeyed, and let him finish 3 bike lengths in front of me. I'm so mad at myself for not pulling something else out of my body. I'm starting to think that I am not pushing myself unless I am chumming the field.

It was a great race and I had a great time. Congratulations to everyone who raced, and there were a lot of people there too.

SUNDAY
This day was the criterium at Branched Oak. The weather was a complete 180 degrees from Saturday. It was cold, overcast, and a 20 mph north wind. It also seemed that many people weren't wanting to race this day either. The field depths were no where near as large as Saturday. There were 14 for the cat 5 race. We lined up for the start. Once again my plan was to start in the middle of the pack and stay with them as long as I could.

Believe it or not, but the same damn thing happened to me as on Saturday. After the first couple of laps I found myself back in the front and pulling. This was not good. I was able to get myself back into the pack, but the damage was done. Slowly but surely, I was falling behind. I decided to get some rest on the small down hill and see if I could catch back up to them. It worked, only for a little bit. Then another rider comes off the back. I caught up to him. We decided that we weren't going to catch up with them, so we decided to work together to make it harder for them to lap us. It was looking good, it appeared that this would be my first crit that I don't get lapped. Then came the next to last lap. Jon and I were about 50 yards from the finish line, when the pack comes up our backside and laps us.

I figured, it was great that I barely got lapped. In the other races earlier in the season I would get lapped multiple times. This time I think I finally noticed an improvement. Congratulations to everyone who raced and thanks to all the people who worked hard organizing these events.

My final results were 29th out of 36 for the road race and 11 out of 14 for the crit. Look for better results next season. I am going to work my backside off during the off season to have a phenomenal season next year.

Now, I need to get ready for the 12 hour Manawa race and the Corporate Cup 10k run this weekend. Then the season will be over until cyclocross begins.