Stony Creek Time Trial

Time for the race report! The Stony Creek Time Trial isn't one of my favorite races, but I needed to do it in order to get my five required CPS races completed. (It replaced Addison Oaks on my schedule, because Miriam's bachelorette party is the night before Addison, so I won't be able to make it.) Overall, I felt the race went well for me, even though I placed fourth (or last) in my class.

The course incorporates a lot of gravelly two-track, and I HATE riding two-track. I have a tendency to relax a bit and not push myself as hard as I should when I'm riding it, so I made a huge effort to go out hard at the beginning of the race. I kept my cadence and heart rate up, and pushed as hard as I could on the climbs. That exertion, however, meant that my body was getting pretty tired by the last mile or so of the single track: the part of the race that was the most fun! I believe they added a significant amount of single track to the course this year, which made it more technical and therefore, more suited to my preferred racing style.

I did have a pretty decent crash; toward the end of the single track, I was coming down a hill and hit a small rocky section. I thought I was going over my handlebars but I pulled it out. A few seconds later, I was sliding sideways down the trail! I didn't feel anything at the time and just jumped right back up, but this morning I have a sore left shoulder and a huge bruise on my right shin. Nice.

Like I said, I came in fourth out of four women in my class. I am pleased with my performance, however. The course was longer this year (not sure by how much), but my time this year was almost identical to my time last year. The woman who placed third came in two minutes ahead of me; she also raced last year in the sport category and her time last year was two minutes faster than mine then, too.

Mitch didn't have a spectacular race. He thought he was all recovered from being sick last week, but he had a lot of trouble breathing. After the race, his awful, hacking cough came back and he sounded terrible. I know it was disappointing for him, but these things happen sometimes. He'll be back on the ball for our next race, which is at Maybury in a month.