First off, I raced. Yay!
Second off, I crashed. Boo.
Now that the nail biting is out of the way, since we all know how it ended, let's go back and try to figure out how I got there.
I woke up not abnormally nervous. I kept telling myself that racing was going to become a routine occurrence soon enough, so I may as well get used to it now. Just be with the nerves, instead of dwelling on the nerves.
Arrived at the race. Still good. Got my number, changed, went down to watch some of the race, went to start my warm up.
Warm up was also good. Got on the trainer and spun for a while, did 3X1minute spin ups on it before heading out to the road for my three pedal stomps. My HR was maybe a bit higher than it would have been otherwise, but I knew some of that was due to nerves. Cut and paste the link below.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/48775509
Got back, noticed the other two ladies who were warming up with me had already headed down to the start, so off I went. Realized I forgot my water bottle once I got down there. Moment of panic. Water bottle lent (thanks Jared!). Panic subsided.
I went to the start...was I nervous? No, I wouldn't call it nervous. Excited? Maybe. I had zero expectations for the race, I just wanted to see what it was all about.
And, we're off!
First lap, all is well, I kept waiting for it to get super fast/hard like I was warned about, but didn't really find it. I stayed in third behind two super experienced looking ladies, trying to cool my jets. Tried to stay smooth, not make any sudden moves, picked my lines, paid attention to how the other ladies were riding.
There were a couple of attacky placed, and once I was part of a possible three lady breakaway, which in retrospect I should have pulled through and kept the breakaway going, but I decided not to and the group caught back up super fast.
Sometimes I was further back in the pack, but I really tried to stay up to the front, which wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.
Then came the last lap. I wasn't in the position I wanted to be. Looking back, again, I probably should have stayed way to the inside and tried to go for it, but I decided to stay behind and see how things were looking as we went into the last turn in the back. I was still feeling good.
Then, after the hill on the backside, a woman came up on my right. It was getting pretty narrow. I felt her start to lean into me just a little bit, probably nothing that wasn't out of the ordinary. But I overcompensated. I think I leaned too hard back, and started to fishtail, and just didn't have the skills to get it back.
So off we went to the right. Crash.
All she said to me as we were sitting there as our friends looked over the bikes was, "You got too close to me, hon." She had blood down her face. My knees were all tore up. I asked if she wanted to finish, she said yes, so up we got and off we went.
Of course I feel like an asshole now. My main goal was to have fun. But even more than that, I the unspoken goal, was to not be "that person." "That person" being the beginner in the race who does something stupid and makes it a bad situation for everyone else. I wish I had a video camera so I could actually see what it was that I did. I know I didn't randomly lose my line or lose control of the bike, and I DID feel her start to push on me. Ultimately, though, it was probably my fault.
So what did I learn?
Two important things:
1) BIKE SKILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I NEED THEM!!!!!! PRONTO!!!!!! I need to go out to a parking lot with some people and just have them bump into me, elbow me, lean into me, etc etc etc until I know how to handle it. You don't get that sort of experience on group rides.
2) Racing is awesome. AWESOME. If there was another race next weekend, I would be doing it. Cyclocross? Can't wait. Next season? Can't wait.
In terms of performance up until then, I did better than I expected to. My HR may not reflect it (look at my HR! WTF!), but I wasn't working that hard. I felt fresh. I felt like I could have REALLY gone for it. I definitely wasn't feeling like I felt on some of the battle rides, barely holding on to the wheel in front of me. There was even some time in the third lap where I was in front pulling, though I slowed down to encourage people to pull ahead of me, since people had advised to sit in the group and chill out until it was time to sprint.
Of course, that doesn't really matter since I crashed. And took someone else down with me. Yes, I know it's a race, and things happen, and it's over now so no used crying, spilt milk and all of that. But when you're "that person," that feeling trumps all the others.
Here is the official read out. Again, cut and paste it:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/48775507
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