Spring Hill Road Race - July 13, 2008

Update: August 1, 2008. The results are posted, but no results for me! I would have been 11/16 - pretty pathetic. So I am not going to bother to inquire or petition the results. I am happy not being on the record for this race.
Still no results posted for this race - I don't know why I should care at this point. I guess I what to know to what degree I sucked. I was "on the fence" whether to do this race. But I decided to do it as a training ride for the district road race on July 26. The weather looked pleasant, no smoke from the wild fires in Northern California, and Dmitrij (coach) told me there would not be a group training ride that weekend. I needed a good hard ride and this seemed to fit the bill. Moreover, my team mate and competitor (P) for the district championship would be there. The race was in Petaluma, CA in Marin County - 44 miles (actually 45 miles); 2 laps with a mix of hills and flats; approx. 1000 feet of climbing per lap. I raced with the W4 who were supposed to start with the W3. My friend P is a Cat 3 and I was looking forward to racing the first two laps with her (the W Cat 3s had to do 3 laps). But at the last minute, the W Cat 3s and the W Cat 4s raced separately. Also, the men's 45+ started ahead of us (a last minute change). So although I had a fairly good warm up on the trainer, I was pretty cold at the start after a good 15 minute delay. The race started out with a climb and the W Cat 4s attacked strong - I redlined and knew I couldn't sustain that pace - my engine was just not warmed up. I dropped back and was shortly joined by two Dolce Vita women. We road the first lap together sharing the work and then picked up a Colavita woman who dropped from the front. She said the front peloton was pretty splintered. So all was going well, descending on lap 2. One of the Dolce Vita woman passed me but I wasn't concerned because her team mate was behind me - I assumed we would regroup at the end of the descent and continue working together. I was surprised when she took off with the Colavita woman and it was all over. Don't know what happened to the other Dolce Vita woman. So I time trialed in the drops the rest of the way - not fun. The wind was wicked. I passed two Cat 3 women who started at least 10 minutes ahead of me but that was of little consolation. Also passed some men from the 45+ group. So I finished and was surprised to see P at the parking lot. She dropped out because she ran out of water and there was no neutral support. The other Cat 3 woman I passed dropped out. Although this was definitely not a priority race for me, I wanted to finish in the top 5. So I was really bummed out, but at least I finished and got some good training in. This was RFA's first road race; he raced with the men's 55+ and stayed with the pack until he hit a bad pothole and his handlebars slipped down (catapulting his water bottle in the process). He finished the first lap but that was it - too bad. Boy, did my butt hurt for a few days from riding in the drops - guess I really got my butt kicked.