My second race was called the Carl Dolan race, and it was held in Columbia, Maryland. This race was a circuit race. A circuit is shorter than a road race but longer than a crit race.....
This race was incredibly fun: the weather was perfect, the crowd exuded great energy, and I absolutely loved the course, but it did have an incline. The incline was not to steep, but it was long.
Now, on the way to the race, I was telling my teammate, Tina, that I was not going to road race anymore, I prefer CX racing...blah, blah, blah!
At the start of the race, I was leading the pack. My people, it felt sooo good to be in the front. I felt like my very own hero. However, we got to a turn, and I slowed down, and I was not longer leading the pack, but I was still in a good position.
We got to that incline, I did ok, but I lost steam quickly. I made it to the top exhausted, but the other girls kept on moving at race pace, and I just couldn't hold the speed.
Several times I wanted to give up, but this awesome crowd would not let me; they were yelling for me to keep pedaling, and I did.
Being that this is my second season racing, and I cycle a lot in the community, the love that I felt after the race was completely liberating. I just love the sense of community of cycling.
So, I asked myself "If I had a daughter and she loved racing, but needed to put in a lot of work to see the results that she wanted, would I encourage her to quit, or would I encourage her to keep racing and training knowing that she will get better?"
Well, of course I would tell my daughter to stick with whatever she loves and work to get better, and that is exactly what I am going to do. All that talk that I was doing before the race about not road racing anymore went out the window as soon as I got on that race course....
My people, I LOVE ROAD RACING!!!
In the meantime, I will be training, training, training, getting ready for the next race....
I'll keep you posted!!
Find a hobby that you love and become its slave.
