The drive from Asheville to the hotel in Greensboro is 2.5 hours. I got to the hotel just before 9:30 but by the time I unloaded everything from the car and moved it to my room it was closer to 10pm. I still needed to clean up the legs (get them out of winter long hair mode) and switch out cassettes on wheels. I ended up going to be just after 11pm which gave me plenty of sleep since the race started at 10am.
Race day: I woke up and had my usual breakfast of oatmeal and peanut butter. This past week I have been adding beON organic cacao powder. I feel like it gives me a decent amount of additional energy for the day... and who doesn't like peanut butter and chocolate?
Was the first one to show up to the race location. Prime bike racking!
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| Looking so fast on the new bike setup. |
Run 1: Started out leading the pack but didn't last long. I wanted to make sure I followed the race plan of hovering around 5:45/mile pace. A pack formed of about 5-6 guys for the first mile. Then there was a slight downhill and the group started to stretch out. One of the guys took the lead and pulled ahead by about 10 yards. He never got farther than that though. I stayed in third for the rest of the run just focusing on controlling the pace. The course was pretty hilly which I knew would hurt later.
Bike: The original plan was to do a flying mount and look all cool... but I got scared since I just started practicing this week and ended up just doing a standing mount. Luckily the pro guy (M. Starkey) had problems with his shoes so I didn't really lose any time. The second turn on the course confused me. It was at a major intersection but I thought the turn was through the intersection. I got about halfway through the intersection and realized that I was wrong. Starkey had met up with me at this point and pulled slightly ahead. The runner who lead into the transition started to fade at the end of the first 10mi lap. After that it was just me and Starkey. He took the lead and by the end of the bike he had 20 or so seconds on me. My legs still felt pretty good thanks to Honey Stinger's caffeinated gels.
Run2 (sufferfest): The second transition went just as well as the first one. I waited too long to take my feet out of the shoes and could only manage to get one out. So I stopped the bike completely and unclipped the one shoe. I felt like an idiot but just had to make due with what I had available. Starkey didn't gain anytime during this fiasco so that was positive. I started the second run feeling very strong. After the first mile I could sense that I was going to at least catch Starkey. I was always too far away to gauge how he was actually doing though. I spent three miles catching up to him. Then came the final hill. I was right behind him starting the climb and could finally hear his labored breathing. I could tell he was hurting more than me so I decided to just put on the burners and pass him hard. I passed him and didn't even look at him. I didn't turn around to see if he followed the move but the lead cyclist made it seem like I broke him. After a minute or so of high effort it was just a matter of holding on to the lead. Luckily I did and started my season off with a win!
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| Bringing home the roses. |
