We woke Sunday morning, packed the car with the kids, the bikes, the food, the bbq and the beer and headed out to Brisbane. It seemed awfully luxurious to only have to drive 20 minutes to get to the race location, having driven a few hours each way the past month of Sundays for other cross races.
This time I was going to try something different than usual, something called "warming up". All last season, my first full season of cross, I'd not once warmed up prior to a race.
This season I'd upgraded to a B and even still, the first three races I'd not warmed up and suffered horribly, finishing last or very close to last.
Something had to change.
I figured I'd give a warm-up a go for the Brisbane race. I had plenty of time since we'd arrived early for my husband, Morgan's race. I spent the first part of the day sitting in chairs and snacking and cheering on the other Velo Girls on who were racing C's as well as Morgan and the others I knew in the men's races.
About an hour and a half prior to start time, I got dressed, got some water and GU and headed out for a course pre-ride. I rode around it 3 times, trying to figure out the right lines, when and when not to carry my bike, how to ride through the sand, and whether or not to "suitcase" the bike or shoulder it up the steeper hills, etc., etc.
I fell a lot. But I figured better to fall during my warm-up, than during the race. And maybe I'd gotten it out of my system.
After the pre-ride, I went out and rode along the frontage road for 40 minutes, mostly just spinning, but with three 30 second all out sprints and then spun slowly back towards the start. A bit more water, a trip to the porta-potty, some encouraging words from other racers and a few GUs and I was ready.
At the start line, still feeling a little shy about newly being in the B's, I started and ended up in the back of the pack at the gun. I was able to pick my way past a few at the first sharp left turn by running it while others tried to ride it. There was an immediate bottleneck at the turn - at the first mound of sand and the first quick uphill. I watched as many tried to ride it and fall because of the big crowd of women pushing to get through. So I hopped off the bike and ran it, all the way to the next big dip and climb.
And then for the next 45 minutes we raced.
Little by little I was able to slowly pick people off and pass them. With each person I passed, I decided I'd try to pass the next person up ahead too. I'd go as hard as all get out until I reached the next person, pass them and then to do it again. It was sort of like a "one step at a time" race for me.
In past races, I'd given up sooner because of the hurt in my lungs and legs and being near the back. This time, I didn't seem to hurt as much. I was warmed up and it inspired me to go harder to get away from the back.
By the 3rd lap, I was still feeling pretty good and riding everything without using my brakes. Just knowing I wasn't last gave me the incentive to keep it going. As I passed through the straight-away, where the lap cards were, I saw that there were still four laps to go. Four laps! You've got to be kidding, I mumbled to myself. I can't keep this up.
But I did and thankfully halfway through my 6th lap, the leader of the A's race lapped me and it turned into my last lap and just that alone inspired me to pick it up a few more notches and finish strong.
And that was that.
After spending some time back at the tent and talking to others I finally got up the energy to walk over to the finish to check the results - imagining that I'd finished somewhere towards the back just as I had the prior three races. But there it was, an 11th place out of 25 - a good finish for me and as a B.
I guess that warming up stuff really does work.
