The Dirt Field

I raced Philly. We packed Kobe into the car to join us for the trip, I showed up and only cried three times, and then I raced. It was somewhat surreal; my first World Cup and I couldn’t even engage enough to feel anxious. At one point during the race, Lauren Hall made a comment about how I wasn’t smiling and so I replied, “my dog died,” and started to cry. She then pointed out the moto with the camera that was filming us. Good times.

Before the race started, I noticed my teammate had “FAIL” written on her bars. That seemed like an interesting tactic and for a moment I thought about writing “YOU SUCK” on mine in solidarity, but instead asked for an explanation. “It’s a reminder,” she answered. “Fail to win. It reminds me to go out and give everything I’ve got to win.” I mulled that over as we lined up to start (because it was an improvement over the endless loop of my-dog-is-dead-my-dog-is-dead that I had previously been using as a motivational monologue) and then went out and did just that. Every time it was even slightly possible to pull off, I attacked. Sometimes it wasn’t that smart, sometimes I didn’t feel great, one time I even came straight through from chasing back onto the field to go right off the front.

It wasn’t conservative and I didn’t care. It felt good to ride hard and not worry about the consequences. It felt good to think, “Holy shitballs, I’m attacking at a World Cup.” It felt good to not worry about what would happen in a lap or the next day but to just race the hell out of each moment. I failed to win and it was excellent. When I made the final trip up the Manayunk Wall – alone, after having detached from the field on the previous ride up the wall – I got high-fives from spectators the whole way because why the hell not? I was so thankful for their cheers and so damn grateful to have found the balls to finish the whole race. It may have cost me an extra 30 seconds, but it was worth it.Fast forward a week and I was home racing the Air Force Cycling Classic. Another week of living without Scout has made things hurt less acutely (partly because I’ve made a full-time career out of looking for needy Shiba Inus to adopt), but I can’t shake the slightly detached, depressed feeling. It’s starting to feel awkward to tell people that I’m still sad about my dead dog, but awkward is sort of my thing and it’s not like I can magically feel better on schedule.

Last Friday night before Air Force, my teammates and I went to an event at Green Lizard Cycling to meet people and answer questions about what it’s like to be a professional cyclist (short answer: like being a regular cyclist, but with more kale). There I got to meet a few young female cyclists who were so excited about racing and the chance to meet me, which blows my mind because I do not see myself as an aspirational figure in any way. I giggle at my own farts. But they were excited and that made me excited and I went so far as to autograph somebody’s bag of chips.

The next two days of racing went well. I don’t feel quite like myself yet – and maybe the definition of ‘myself’ is going to be different now that I’ve lost something so dear – but I was able to ride hard, give everything possible, and fail to win. For Saturday’s race, that was enough to earn the Most Courageous Rider jersey. It was an honor to receive that award at my hometown race in front of my family and friends.
For Sunday’s race, we had a team strategy and I wanted to hug Julie in the middle of the crit (despite the logistics of that) for being completely spot-on in nailing the plan. She was everywhere she needed to be at every moment, freeing me up to play my part in the plan. It didn’t work out – I was supposed to go up the road with a Tibco rider and never managed to get away – but it was great racing nonetheless and we did our best. If there is one lesson I want to share with the girls who are kind and crazy enough to look up to me, it’s that you should always do your best, even when you’re hurting, even when you’re sad, even when life does not go your way. There may still be heartache when you fail to win, but at least there is no regret.