The course on Saturday was still long, but was hillier, had more barriers, a little less cornering (yay me), a sand pit and some s
tairs on the side of a hill we had to run up. Yeah, that sounds harder...Trav and I pre-rode the course and it felt good, but I realized it was going to be a bitch during the race. At the start, we are lined up my race officials and due to registering early and my placing at Nittany, I was put in the 2nd row! I took the far left spot behind last week's winner and was ready to haul ass one the whistle sounded. GO! Everyone took off, including the chick in front of me and I followed her wheel past a lot of people out to front with some others. It was super fast and some faster riders passed me and it wasn't until one lap was down that it started to settled a bit. I was able to pick off a few riders and then tailed one rider for 2 laps and stayed with her as long as possible, until she bit it at a nasty corner and I raced past her and continued on my way. At this point the lead group was waaaaaaaaayyyyy ahead of me and I couldn't even see anyone in front or 
even behind me. I was alone, which was good and bad. I was so afraid of slacking off that I kept riding as hard as I could and it was tough to tell if I was going faster or slower without anyone else around. Finally I heard the cowbells indicating the last lap and kept pace and finished strong...to an 11th place finish! Woo-hoo! I had no idea I was riding in that position and it felt awesome to finish that strongly out of a field of 45 riders. My races are a combination of Cat 3 and 4 riders and after I came in 3rd among the Cat 4 riders. It's amazing how much a great start plays into things. Travis finished 16th so we both imporved on our 33rd and 34th place finished from the week before. Time to hydrate and refuel while watching the Elite races. On Sunday I drove back down from Philly for another race. The drive home on Saturday, dropping off Trav and then adopting out Cecil left me with less sleep than I apnitcipated, but I was able to get 8 hours and eat a solid meal before bed. I arrived as prepared as could be and warmed on on the altered course.
They took a lot of turns out, reversed some sections, kept the stairs and sand (damnit) and quite possibly shortened it. At the start I lined up in almost the same spot, but my start, and everyone else's it seems, was not very good. I'm terrible at navigating in traffic and wasn't as aggressive as I should have been in getting up front. I have this fear of causing a crash, not that I'm afraid of crashing, but I don't want to piss people off by wrecking others. I need to get over that. This race was shortened to 4 laps and that was fine with me as my tank emptied a lot sooner than I expected. The leaders took off and I started to pick off riders one by one until I got to two ladies and rode with them most of the way. We traded spots for a good part of the race and I made a move on teh last lap at the big barrier and overtook her, but exhausted myself too much and she caught back up and overtook me in the last twisty section. I finished the race in 14th place, still good, but it left me slightly annoyed that I didn't crack the top ten. Next time! I won't be racing next weekend since I'll be in Jacksonville for Clamgate 2010 so I have 2 solid weeks of training to get ready for Town Hall Cross and Hillbilly Hustle the first weekend in October. I should post my schedule in case anyone wants to come watch me and Travis suffer on a bike for 40 minutes. I'll do that this week.
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