My First Time (Racing) - Part 2 of 2

The race begins and the road grit flies! The Cal Aggie Criterium had plenty of racers and tight quarters.

As we got started off the line I had a slight delay as I missed my first attempt to click my left foot into the pedal.  I have never been good at the road pedals, dating back to when they first came out in the late 80’s (when they were a lot harder to get out of and I fell a lot more). Anyway…  I quickly recovered and caught up to Patrick.  Everything was going fine on that first lap until we hit the first big turn.  According to John, a fellow BC racer, that first left turn is 120 degrees followed by an immediate 90 degree right turn.  With the course being wet and oily, it was tricky to slam on the brakes and negotiate the turn while trying to spring out of the turns as fast as possible.  A mistake I would make more than once going into these turns is that I would forget to shift to an easier gear.  This left me trying to accelerate hard out of a turn while trying to push a gear that was too hard to pedal.  Still, I managed to get out of the turn fast enough to maintain my position behind Patrick, all was well. 




Pushing to rejoin the pack after the crash.

 On the second lap we came to the big left turn again.  Everything seemed to be going fine when a racer to the front left of Patrick went down.  Initially I didn’t think anything of it and thought we were going to miss him.  Then Patrick started to go down in front of me.  I didn’t want to do a big swerve because I didn’t know who was beside me so I did more of a subtle shift to the right and tried to pass as quickly as possible. I remember bracing myself, hoping that I could glide by without getting caught up in the crash. I eked by and found myself upright and my thoughts went back to the race.  I took a quick peripheral glance to my left to make sure I could proceed through the turn without running into anyone.  I saw some riders down, but I couldn’t make out the details.  All I knew was that the path was clear and I had to catch up.  After finishing the turns I got low on the bike, shifted to my fastest gear, and started cranking.  Shortly after passing the start/finish line I was back with the group. 

Now was the really frustrating part of the race.  How do I close back in on John and Randy?  With the slick roads slowing everyone down in the turns, the group wasn’t strung out yet.  During each straight, I would get within range of John and Randy and would back off thinking that I should conserve energy and I could slowly work my way up the last few bike lengths.  However, that backfired because every time we hit the big left turn, the group would bunch up and I would lose the progress I made coming out of the turns.  I tried the right side and then I tried the left side with the same results every time.  This was getting old and even more frustrating is that I thought it would be pretty obvious how many laps were left, but I could never find the person holding the sign.  Maybe I was suffering from “first race tunnel vision”? 

I also did not realize that the bell ringing indicated the primes or the final lap.  From dabbling in mountain bike racing a few times last year, where everyone was ringing some sort of bell on every lap, I just assumed that it was the crowd cheering on the racers.  Most of the final lap was uneventful because I didn’t know it was happening until we came out of the turns for the final straightaway.  All of the other racers jumped out of their saddles and started sprinting.  At this point, it was too late for me to try and counter with a sprint of my own so I just worked on maintaining my position within the group and bringing my first race to a safe finish. I was hit by the wall of anti-climax, my first race was over somehow and my body felt as if it had not yet even begun.



What? The race is over???

 I was left with mixed feelings.  I was happy to have participated in and finish my first race, better yet that I was still in one piece.  However I was also frustrated because, other than making up ground after the crash, I never worked hard during the race.  I had all that energy bundled up, ready to explode, but nothing happened.  If there was another category I could have raced in immediately after, I would have done it. As it was my racing was done for the day.


I did a cool down lap with John and Randy and we talked about the race for a bit.  Randy gave me some tips -I should work the middle more and to try and make up ground between the sets of turns.

My wife -in my big day-glo jacket- and I talk after the race.

At the end of the cool down lap I saw my wife with the camera.  I was happy to see her and pulled over to tell her about the race. As we walked she told me how she had been puzzled that I never looked as if I was attacking, she told me I looked as if I was just sitting back almost the entire race.  I explained the issues I encountered and she pointed out that I needed to trust my strength more. We agreed that next time I need to attack more and not worry about the possibility of burning out and getting left behind.  She could tell that I had not even touched my reserves of strength and stamina. She told me that I was absolutely buzzing with unspent energy.

Jax is not quite sure what to think of my new paint job. "Daddy? That you?"

 We rejoined the rest of the family and I rescued my 15 month old from the stroller only to have him give my road grime covered face a strange look. I think it took him a minute to even realize it was me under my new paint job. After spending a few more minutes with the family I met up with John to talk more about the race and we checked in with Patrick to see how he was doing after the crash.
 

Patrick showed off his war wound but when my wife asked him if he needed medical attention he shrugged it off, showing a lot more concern for any damage that may have been taken by his bike.  I am not sure where Randy went; last I saw he was talking to some other racers that he knew.

I packed up my family and we talked about the race all the way home and it has been our main topic of conversation ever since. My wife found that she enjoyed her day at the races and that she couldn’t be prouder of me for working so hard and finally making it to where I wanted to be.





In retrospect, I am happy I did the race and I can’t wait for the next one. I may have felt unsatisfied at first but now that I think about it, that one race taught me a lot. More than I ever could have learned from a book or from sitting around listening to someone else talk about it. Nope, I had finally stopped talking about racing. Now I am doing it!