The Dirt Field

The Race: Green Mountain Stage Race, Stage 1, Time Trial

The Course: 5.7 miles (2.3 miles of climbing)

The Field: Pro 1/2 woman

The Finish: 9th

I’m a cat 1 now, so clearly I expected to win this stage. I’m surprised they haven’t preemptively given me the yellow jersey for winning the GC.

Wait, what? It doesn’t work that way?

Right. With that upgrade did not come a new pair of legs or lungs. Thus, I was suddenly not a wildly gifted time trial master, and today was challenging. I rode hard and it hurt, blah blah, good story. The most interesting thing that happened during the 16 minutes and 23 seconds that I was on the course was that I threw up four times. As you can tell from the title of this post, breakfast included bacon.

I’ve realized, upon seeing the impact of Hurricane Irene on the residents of New Jersey and Vermont, that I was a moron to complain about how the hurricane was ‘lame’ and ‘boring’ in Northern Virginia. How stupid that seems when confronted with people who lost their homes, their belongings, and their livelihoods to flooding. I hope that racing here is not seen as insensitive and that the influx of business into the local economy is able to help. Should I be so lucky as to come away from this race winning money, I will happily donate 100% of it to the local relief efforts. It’s the least I can do after being fortunate enough to come through the hurricane with nothing but complaints of boredom.