Well it has finally started; my first 'race' (although it was a training race) of 2010. The crew at St. John's Cycling put on an A and B style road/circuit race last night at Fellows Lake and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to get my first beating of the year. Dale showed up and raced the B's (he had a great time and finished well, I believe).33 miles (3 loops of 11m) and a 6pm start time with nice temps no rain in sight there were 13 'A' riders and I am not sure how many 'B's', but I would guess over 20. Hogan, JBrackett, and a guy named Nick represented St. Johns (Jim, Cale, and Skippy were admin'ing it), a couple guys from OCC, and the remainder a mix of folks I didn't know outside of Mark Stokes (not surprising since I never ride in SGF); I had no idea what to expect as my main focus was to get up to race speed and see how long I could hang on.
The first 4 or 5 miles were pretty tame as the pace was steady, but not 'race pace'. That changed on the south side of the course (into a headwind) and the racing began. Most everyone seemed to pull through and we were rolling pretty quick. I recognized early that I needed to keep my pulls short as I couldn't go toe to toe with several in the group. There is a sharp (but fairly short) climb at the end of every lap and on the first it broke up the group a little (I stayed with the front) and immediately a solid paceline formed to start the second lap. The pace stayed solid for pretty much the entire loop with a couple attacks and mixing it up, but each came back together pretty quickly. The climb at the end of 2 was tame and St. John's guys starting trying to get a small break up the road and one stayed for just about the entire north side until it was brought back (by teammates of the two up the road - it was a training race after all). I was starting to dig deep and started skipping every other pull in order to try to make the finish with the lead group; I was feeling Sunday night's motor-pacing session. We were down to maybe 8 of us going into the last climb and I couldn't hold the pace of a small group and finished 5th overall. Bittersweet review of the evening as I got in a great workout, got the feel of racing again, and was fairly smart in my allocation of effort/preservation, but the bummer was I didn't have the legs to get up the hill with the top guys (realistically wouldn't have had a shot at the win against obviously stronger guys) and will take some more racing until I feel decently 'fast' again.
With a $15 entry (included a one day license for those in need) and a reasonable distance, great venue/course, and the winners walking away with baked goods (who could ask for more) I hope they put on a handful more of these throughout the summer/fall. Great event and SGF needs (desperately needs) something like this.
I didn't stick around after the event and chat as I needed to shoot across town to catch the end of Ian's first ball game (1 or 2; it is Tuesday night after all). Got there a hair late to see Ian's best hit he ever has had (sigh...),but did catch the ending of their win (14-5). The second game we crushed them something like 20-1 (but they quite posting scores over a 10 pt lead). Ian went 4 for 4 batting and made some sweet plays in the field to include a game ending cannon throw from right-center field to gun a runner down at third base (no joke, the hardest I've seen him throw - and that's saying something).
Finished off the SGF trip with some Braums and then topped off the entire day with a game of Catan with Jake and Andie once home; solid day.
Snagged some STL Cardinals tickets for this weekend so we'll be taking E-ball to his first MLB event. He is on cloud nine and can't wait. We plan to make a full day out of it getting there way early and trying to get a couple autographs before the game. Staying at Deb's sisters place which is a hop, skip, and jump from Babler State Park where there is a circuit race this Sunday morning; I plan to race it.
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