I had no idea whether I was in race shape or not. I trained over the winter, but probably not as much as I should have. Stepping up to the line on Saturday, I wasn’t sure whether I would take first place or blow up and die like I did the last race of last season. I will cut to the chase: I didn’t do either of those things. I finished a respectable fifth place in what was a very large field for our group.
It was nice to see so many of the usual suspects out for the first race. Mike, Keith, Brad, Rich and Patrick were all there, as well as quite a few other names from last year. Jay was there too, but racing in the 50+ open class, which he may well dominate this year.
I knew I was in a little bit of trouble when I was talking with Brad during staging. He said he had been hitting the Spin Classes three times a week. I have never taken a spin class, so I don’t know much about it, but I do know that any form of organized training is bound to be better than watching CSI while pedaling on a trainer. Sure enough, Brad passed me about a half a mile into the race, and I never saw him again.
It would be easy to focus on the fact that I have taken fifth place in this race two years in a row. The truth is, however, there is no comparison. I felt better and rode faster (several minutes faster) this year than last year. I think the whole field was just faster this year.
It is nice to have the first race out of the way. It is time to get a little more serious about training and fitness. Cholla is a month away, and I would like to improve over a fairly poor showing there last year. It was a great day, and a great start to the 2009 racing season:
