The Dirt Field

I had my last cross country race of the season this past Sunday at Quantico Marine Corps Base. Things didn’t get off to a great start in the morning; Bobby and I were late leaving the house, I chose the worse of two ways to get there and got us stuck in bad traffic, and neither of us had managed to bring the driver’s licenses we needed in order to get on base. By the time we pulled up to the race area, it was less than thirty minutes to the start and I had not even registered. I was stressed, but knew it was going to be a long race (three 9.5 mile laps) and that there would be plenty of time to warm up during the first lap.

Intending to ride around for a few minutes after registering, I instead ended up riding to the start area and waiting with the other racers for ten minutes. There were three other expert women in my class – two that I did not know and one (Kathy) that I knew to be very experienced, skilled, and fast. My goal was to try and ride with her as much as I could. Frankly, I was not optimistic about beating Kathy, but I also knew that even staying with her during a long race would be an accomplishment at this point in my racing career.

We started with the singlespeeders and took off up a short, steep climb. As expected, Kathy took off and we started the first lap with me trailing shortly behind her. My legs felt fine, despite the lack of warm up, but it still took a while to settle onto the bike and start riding technical sections and downhills smoothly. She’d open a gap on a fast section, I would punch it a little to keep her close, and so on. I even passed her at one point on a longer climb, but that only stuck for a few minutes. After she passed me back, the gap got a little wider and she eventually drifted off into the distance.

Other than feeling the effects of the hot, humid day, my first two laps went well. I like Quantico a lot – it’s a flowy course with lots of short ups and downs and manageable technical features. I didn’t know how far back the third place girl was, so I did the best I could to keep a strong pace no matter how I felt. Because the race was longer and less intense, I also got a chance to finally nail the eating and drinking; a whole flask of Hammer Gel (nutritious, flavored energy snot, for you non-bikers), several bottles of Heed, and lots of cold water from the four aid stations along the course. I felt somewhat queasy from the exertion and started getting a mild headache, but never any signs of cramping.

Up until the beginning of the third lap, people along the course kept saying that Kathy was about a minute ahead of me. I came through the finish area at the end of my second lap, at which point Bobby told me that she was only about ninety seconds ahead. I was feeling good, so I decided to attack, blasting through the woods for a little over two miles and riding hard as much as possible. As I came up to a climb near the first water station, I caught sight of Kathy just ahead, and when I rolled through to get water, they told me it was only a thirty second gap. I kept going and was trying to keep up the intense effort, but about three miles in I started to feel a little headachy and woozy from the heat and the exertion. When I came to a fork in the trail and made a left turn into the tape blocking the trail I was not supposed to take, I realized that I was blowing up and needed to dial it back a bit.

I rode the rest of the race well, staying as strong as I could despite feeling the effects of the weather and my unsuccessful attack. In the end, Kathy finished just over three minutes in front of me, which was still a small enough gap that I could feel pleased with my efforts. More importantly, it felt great to know I’d found the guts to throw down an attack nineteen miles into a race and put out a really hard effort. I know that I did the best I could; there was no way I could have sustained that intense pace for the 6.5 miles left in the lap and I had to listen when my body started complaining. Kathy told me after the race that she had seen me at that water station and knew that she needed to ride strong to keep me behind her, which probably did not help my efforts to catch her either. In the end, I went home feeling satisfied with my riding and happy with the progress I had made on the mental aspect of racing.

So what’s next? On September 6th, I will be doing the Shenandoah Mountain 100 again, except this year I am riding it without Bobby and trying to shave three hours off my time from last year. After that, I am going to take a few weeks off from racing before starting the cyclocross season. I am also going to learn how to ride my new cross bike, put my new downhill helmet to good use, and scrape together pennies to buy a full-suspension bike. Life is good.