WA State Road Race Championship, Elma WA
Was both totally sick and had a blast at this race. I don't know what was up, but I had an upset stomach that wouldn't quit. I felt like I wanted to throw up the entire way, but fortunately it wasn't affecting my legs and lungs.
The course was one I'd done earlier in the season. A 12 mile loop, with a 3K climb that us women 4's would do 2.5 times - the flyer said 3.5 so it was a relief to know that we would only be doing that climb 3 times rather than four! The finish was at the top of the climb. There are 18 gals listed on the results, but I'd swear more started (about 25?) so I'm thinking that they didn't list non-finishers. The group stayed pretty much together the first time up the climb, which was a bit of a surprise, but I think everyone was thinking about having to climb it twice more. We came back down to the valley and onto a twisty farm road - careful of the chickens ( a free range chicken flew into a rider at the last race - she crashed but, both rider and chicken reported to have been OK). My team mates were doing great, launching attacks - getting on the front. I was sitting in the middle of the pack, feeling a bit green and worrying a bit about what was going to happen when the gas got turned on for the next climb. When we hit the hill one gal started launching attacks left and right, but she didn't have the acceleration to get away. It did string out the group a bit though. When we got closer to the top the decisive attack came. 4 people got a gap up the road - one was off the front with 3 chasers. There were 2 of us in the gap between the pack and the chasers. She should have been being more careful, since she had a team mate in the break, but I caught her wheel and let her pull me up to the break. We could see the lone gal up front and we figured with 5 of us working together we could catch her, but not so. We kept her in sight all of the way down the hill and through the flats, but she proved to be stronger than we anticipated. We were all working together quite nicely, but no one wanted to blow themselves up before that final climb to the finish. Working in a small paceline like that was so much fun I could almost forget I wanted to pull over and throw up! When we hit the bottom of the hill, the games began. We went up that hill the last time so slow (I was starting to wonder if the pack was going to get us, but they were no where to be seen), no one wanted to take the lead. There were 3 in the group who are known to be very stong, plus myself and the other gal, relative newbies, both on our first season. I was pretty sure I was the weakest of the bunch so I certainly wasn't going to try to go before any of them. The run up to the finish is kind of interesting. The hill steepens and turns right, up a short steep hill onto a false flat of about 50 meters or less to the line. The person I was watching to go attacked at the turn and took it wide (the grade is less severe if you don't cut the corner close) I did my best to follow, the other 3 took the turn closer. Those three came in 2-3-4 (remember there was a gal off the front), but I managed to pass the original attacker on the short climb after the right. I figured she would probably get me on the small flat, but I held her off and finished 5th!
