what's your first race of the season?

[mtbdarby]

May 13th 12 hours of Sugar Creek: http://www.wemseries.com/Sugar_Creek_05.html

Nanci, how many miles are you planning on doing?

Renee, I'm no sprinter, but I'm planning on meeting up with you at Nine Mile June 4th for the big ring.

[madisongrrl]

Renee, I'm no sprinter, but I'm planning on meeting up with you at Nine Mile June 4th for the big ring.

Sweet...are you racing citizen or sport? Last year there were almost 60 citizen women's racers and 50+ sport women's racers. A pretty decent turn out...so after the "call-ups" you need to get to the front ASAP! That course is super fast!

[Nanci]

I'm "just" doing the marathon- 26.2 miles. I would someday like to be able to do 50k there, but it's _very_ difficult to just complete the marathon- I'm talking 10+ hours, much of it spent at a death march. And that's not just me- it's practically everyone who doesn't just run a couple laps till it gets hot and then quit. It is the singlemost difficult thing I have ever done. I am not really sure what draws me back- maybe because the course and race director are such ultrarunning legends, definitely the challenge of being one 17 women to ever complete the marathon in 11 years. (Women have completed the marathon 22 times, with five women repeating once, only two women in consecutive years.) And I get to see some UR Florida running buddies that I never see now, now that road biking has taken over my life. Plus, it's a joy to see someone who can _really_ run and deal with the course conditions put on a record-setting race- it's so amazing. I just want to live through it. I am hoping to break the 10-hour time possibly this year, but since I have not been running at all, I don't know how realistic that is. I think I have gained a lot of conditioning from riding, though. And I've lost a lot of weight since last spring. _If_ I can complete the marathon this year, unless one of the other repeaters comes back, I will be the only woman to ever finish three times, and that will be consecutively. I pretty much have to do it! :-) (The total both-sexes finishing rate is 56%, or 123 of 220 starters, since 1995.)

Nanci

[mtbdarby]

That's awesome Nanci! I started running again after watching an offroad tri race - darn it, I forgot the name!!! I'll remember after I get done typing this. But as my luck would have it, I pulled a muscle in my calf running last week - and reminded myself why I like riding bike better

Renee, which class is easier?? It takes me 10 miles to get in my zone so the thought of that race scares the crud out of me - I just wanted to meet up with you but figured if I was heading out there I might as well race in it, right? Besides, I figure any race experience is good experience. Do you come up the night before or just up and back for the day? We definitely need to hook up - I haven't met a TE woman yet!

[madisongrrl]

Renee, which class is easier??

Citizen is easier than Sport. I'll warn you...there are some pretty tough and extremely competitive chicas in both classes. Though I'm sure there are many Sports moving up to Expert as well as Citizens moving up to Sport for 2006. So it hopefully won't be as bad.

It takes me 10 miles to get in my zone so the thought of that race scares the crud out of me - I just wanted to meet up with you but figured if I was heading out there I might as well race in it, right?

Yup, if you are heading out to this race, you might as well take part in it!

Citizens race ~10 miles/2 laps
Sports race ~15 miles/2 laps

So you have to really warm up before the race. Everyone takes off like a bat out of hell from the start line. Every race I'd try to stay with the lead pack, usually get dropped and spend the whole first lap trying to just stay within reach (I really hate race starts...they are not my strong suit). By the second lap many have to slow down and that is when I usually catch up. I would be terrible at short track racing. The course is not very technical, it's fast and it's pretty fun.

Besides, I figure any race experience is good experience. Do you come up the night before or just up and back for the day? We definitely need to hook up - I haven't met a TE woman yet!

My brother and I will show up the day before to pre-ride the course. I usually like to ride 2 laps so I can learn the course.

Here is a link to last year's citizen women's times.
http://www.wors.org/results/results....=o&cat=citizen
Last year's Citizen race was around 11.5 miles total.

A rough map of last years tenative course:
http://www.wors.org/news/article.php?id=58