This one was May 29.
It was a beautiful day in Beaver, PA. The course was a bit crazy, from memory it was: start/finish on a straightaway on the town's main street. Left, cobblestones, right (chicane) then a left, a right, a straightaway, a left, a left, a little "speed bump" short but sort of steep hill, I think there was a left, or was the other chicane there...well, the chicane was followed by a curving left, then a sharp left, then a longer milder hill (about like Edgehill but maybe half as long?) then a right at the top, and a left onto main street (with a wicked headwind). The women did 10 laps of the 2.2 mile course.
Since this was a combined field, I wasn't the only one for whom this was a "learning experience" first or near-first race. The corners were a big deal. Starting on about the fourth lap the uphill bit became a big deal too, as the stronger women invariably toughened things by sprinting up it.
On the first lap I was startled by the line the riders took into the first corner, swinging fairly wide and ending on the right hand side of the road. Do they just not want to ride on the cobbles? (There was a paved bit to the right of the cobbled portion.) Perhaps, but also you dummy, you always take a corner like that wide to conserve speed through it. It took me a couple of laps but finally I just ended up staying on someone's wheel and holding the same line as they through the corners, so that I would be less of a danger to others and myself. :(
The corners and the hills shed a few people off; I was expecting this and made my #1 goal to be with the pack at those points. Unfortunately on the hill I ended up really throwing myself at it as the pace invariably quickened, so since heart rate lags a little behind exertion, I basically worked too hard at the bottom leaving me with nothing at the top. (I focused on spinning the biggest gear I could turn around quickly, I draped my upper body, breathed rhythmically, and got a good song stuck in my head thanks to the mix CD we listened to on the way down. This was not adequate technique. Needs practice.) My legs invariably felt like rubber at the corner on the top, I stood to sprint out of the corner and my legs screamed at me, and this was about where a gap would open (especially on one of the many prime laps) either by my fault or that of the wheel I was on, leaving me hanging in the wind as we approached the blustery home stretch. So I'd fight that and be barely in contact again by the cobbled chicane, or else I'd have to catch up on the next straightaway (also blustery, but for some reason, apparently no one wanted to pull through there so the group would bunch up and I'd have a chance to catch them).
Around the third or fourth lap I got distracted while trying to chase, and clipped a pedal through a corner, and nearly went into the curb. Yipes!
It was interesting to be on such a flat, speedy course. I stayed in my big ring the whole way, which is unusual for me!
At one to go I was off pretty far, approaching on the straightaway. Mr. N. (the best encouraging spectator EVER, I was so gratified to have somebody cheering for me!) called out, "Finish it out!" and I knew he just wanted me to give it my best shot even if I had almost no chance of finishing with the pack. So I hammered as hard as I could, just mash-mash-mash, I could see the pack, and they didn't pick up speed over the little hill like I expected, so I stood and really went for it there, had a few yards behind them at the chicane, was JUST barely in contact at the bottom of the hill. A group of people in suits crossed the race course at that moment! I don't know if this distracted me, but another rider said she was freaked. I spun up that last hill within arm's reach of the pack but it wasn't enough. They were in full-on finishing mode, pouring it on while I had almost nothing left in the tank. I came onto the straightaway and resolved to give it everything I had left. I crossed the line with a grimace, 20 seconds behind the main group. My official finishing time was 1:02:19 for 22.5 miles, I guess that's a 21.8 mph average. ( I didn't stop my computer until I'd warmed down for several minutes, so the 20.8 it recorded was off.)
