halftime

Arguably, this was the best part of the Mt. Hamilton race this last weekend. We spotted these porta potties and decided we would hit them and beat the rush at reg. Reg didn't have porta potties, they had full on bathrooms.


I was still squeezing out the last little drops of the Bella high from Kern and thought maybe I ought to try another hilly road race. The Bella high coupled with taking a complete rest day after Friday night track made for a guilty but energetic feeling. The rest day consisted of watching the giro, consuming lots of food, and taking many naps. At 9pm Saturday night, we felt unusually peppy so we traded our nighties for regular clothes. We got in the trucks and headed to Livermore to tackle the first part of Mt. Hamilton's point to point logistical nightmare.

Cutting to the race day chase, someone from another team was told by their coach to make the race a time trial effort. No reason why anyone would pay to do a time trial effort in a hilly 63 mile race from the very start? But, they did. The race started from the gun, and I was dropped before the right turn to road 130. A full on eight measley fricking minutes. I checked the heart rate monitor, and it was falling to 194. Ok, so that really was a fast start, and I wasn't just lame and wimpy. Later on, I had lovely company as Marscat and Marian decided to turn back and find me. We all rode the rest of the way together.

We had a follow vehicle that we kept trying to get rid of, but he told us that he could not go around "because this is sort of my job". He finally stopped at the top of the Lick Observaory. Whew...I felt bad for him. Burning all that $4+/gallon gas.

In the valley around mile 43, we caught a woman from our group and thought she might want to ride to the finish with us. For some reason, she wanted no part of our little group and scurried on ahead. Oh well...her loss. At mile 62, we saw the unfriendly again. Marscat said "lets pip her". We tried, rather Marian and Marscat tried, but I was out of gas and just exhausted. Anyway, this was one race that I had never attempted from the San Jose side, and I will never ever do again.

But the good thing is now I feel like imposing a mini halftme rest period on my racing season before the big gear up for nats. So for now, just a few Fridays and Tuesdays and maybe a crit now and then, but no more hilly road races. And, some card games and some camping thrown in for good luck. Yay!