The Poo Circuit Race Series

The course smelled like poo and so did my performance. Ugh. I spent an hour driving to Silvana for the first race in the Lake Washington Velo Circuit Race Series and ended up racing for a whole of 10 miles.

We had a great turnout of around 30 riders for the Women's Cat 4 race. I had told myself that this was going to be it -- my first pack finish. We did five laps on a 5-mi circuit and the course was pretty nice except for a brutal headwind between the first two corners. Unlike Ravensdale the pack today had a lot of sketchy riders. I really need to work on my positioning at the start as I found myself at the back behind most of the scary people. One girl would not stop pounding on her brakes and I was continually overlapping her wheel. That's the fastest way to crash so I started trying to get away from her but just had nowhere to go.

The first lap started fast and almost immediately we had a 7-8 person breakaway that no one seemed interested in chasing. I felt strong and was hanging in there just fine but was still getting unnerved by the sketchy riding. On corners the pack would string out a bit so I decided to use a corner to move up and away from the bad riders.

As soon as we hit the 1st corner on the 2nd lap I shifted and stood up to power ahead of people and all of a sudden my chain just stuck. I swear I nearly endo'd but somehow recovered and sat back down. At that point I realized I couldn't spin at all as my stupid derailleur was all jammed up or something. I started shifting and trying to pedal and finally got the chain coaxed back together but by that time the pack had ridden away. Of course I picked the windiest spot on the course to try to chase back on and there was just no way it was going to happen with the headwind. Not even two laps in and there I am working as hard as I can and seeing the pack ride away.

I was so pissed when I came around the 2nd lap that I bagged it and pulled off at the finish line. I have no idea what I was doing. I have never quit a race before and it's not like me at all to give up. I seriously thought I was bringing up the rear and I just did not feel up to riding solo AGAIN. Shortly after I pulled off I saw another girl standing by the side of the road and then about 5-6 girls riding by on the course. As soon as I saw them go by and I realized how many people had been behind me I got pissed at myself for quitting.

On the 4th lap a girl from Starbucks and a girl from TiCycles pulled off as did a rider from Wines. The TiCycles rider and I started talking and were both pretty irrate at ourselves for pulling out. She said, "What was I thinking? I didn't even realize there were more people behind us." We decided to go back out and do at least one more lap to feel better and had a great chat on the way around.

I still can't believe I did that! If I had stayed in I would have finished probably above at least 7-8 people. I guess I just got frustrated. I can tell you for sure that I'll never be quitting another race again...this feels horrible! Even when I roll across the line last I feel better than when I pull out. Ah well, I'll be out there again next Saturday for more punishment.