Here’s some pics

I’m into the helmet number.

And big checks.

TJ and I woke up at 2:45am on Sunday to drive to Fond du Lac, WI to race around Lake Winnebago. There was a 5:40am start time and we registered the night before at 9:00pm. There’s nothing like finishing up a 92-mile race before 10am…

Now the race felt something like Tucson’s Shootout. The event was non-sanctioned, mass-start, and the great majority or racers were non-racers. Prepping to race in the dark is somewhat reminiscent to gearing up for Tucson’s shootout. There were no rules concerning gear and there were plenty of tri-bikes and TT helmets in the pack.

The race turned out to be lots of fun. The course brought us over a handful of railroads and we even cruised down a couple residential neighborhoods in a subdivision. At times the pavement turned into severely cracked concrete and zig-zagged its way through small town Wisconsin. It was a bit sketch at times to say the least, especially when you notice a tandem to your right, and you’re sitting on the wheel of a guy wearing a utility belt with a race number attached with two safety pins so it’s flapping in the wind.

The pace picked up with about 50-miles of racing to go. I managed to survive a series of attacks through a pretty technical section of course, in large part due to TJ who drifted back and gave me a good wheel to sit on. Then came a hill, and I got dropped with about seven guys and one lady, most of them on time trial bikes. At this point, we’re the only two ladies who survived the earlier attacks. My back started to cause me a bit of pain and I decided to sit back for a while and let the time trial bikes chase back on the downhill. This is how the chase worked: time trial bike to the front, someone in the back of the line thinks we’re not moving fast enough and pedals up the front, pedals really hard for a bit, second or third wheel attacks, the group splinters, things recover, lady on tri-bike gets pissed and goes to the front and pedals hard. Repeat. I’m scared to think how fast we would have gone had things been a little better organized. Once we got within 100 yards or so of catching back on the attacks got more frequent and more desperate. I think we hung about that distance from the lead group for quite awhile. Eventually I started working and tried delegating a bit but guys don’t like to listen to girls. Eventually we caught on. Shortly thereafter we hit some more hills and I survived but the time trial lady did not. The situation was looking good at that point. The efforts got too much for me as guys started attacking with about ten miles to go. I couldn’t accelerate with enough speed to stay on a wheel so I found myself riding the last 8 miles solo. I was a little concerned about the triathlete lady behind me with her TT bike, fast wheels, fast helmet, and the fast, flat, slightly-downhill few miles to the finish. But I made it with a few minutes to spare.

For the awards ceremony, the lady with the mic asked the tri-lady (2nd place) how things went out there. She told everyone that in road racing the strongest rider doesn’t always win and that she was racing at a heart rate about 15-beats lower than her Ironman target. She said some other nice things to the organizer too. But seriously, who says that to a crowd of people at an awards ceremony?? Oh well…

The best part is that there was free pasta, salad, soda, and cookies at the finish line. And I won a silver platter large enough for a turkey for first overall female.