Mt Tam Hill Climb and end of season Bocce
Well... the season is officially over! As the race director for this year's Mt Tam Hill Climb, I can say: it went off perfectly!! On Friday, the weather was incredibly windy and I thought that no women would beat the 50 minute challenge, but there was no wind on Saturday and two women did just that! I think about 500 racers showed up for a gorgeous day of racing in Marin County.
In addition, we had Ned Overend racing on our local turf! How cool is that? I had so much help and all were friendly faces. So many CRCers showed as well as borrowed race volunteers like Monique from Metromint, Jenn and Raymond from Squadra, Netti and Skot from Taylor and Rafael from just SF who thought it would be fun to get out of bed at 4:45 to help me at the Hill Climb!?! Who could forget the infamous Mike Neel also working reg!
Sunday was even warmer and my end of season Bocce Ball BBQ at the Marin Bocce Ball courts was such fun. But it was over 100 on those courts so not too many people wanted to play! My sangria was a hit, though!
GTKY
CRC had a Get To Know You ride on Sunday 9/10. It was a great turn out and a lot of fun that I wasn't supposed to have... Not only is my ankle mad at me, I was a little hung over from the previous night's happenings.
Tim shows me his middle finger as I show him mine all the time!
Carrera de San Rafael
What an awesome day of racing for the CRC GIRLZ (except for me). I was a spectator today as my official end of the season race was last week. According to Sam and Breego, I am a great cheering committee as I yell like I am angry and I mean it!
The race looked pretty fast and Sam, Molly and Virginia were hanging in the main group. Breego fell off the back of the main field, but she hung on seriously strong and was able to come in 10th overall in the 4's. In the long and short of it, Virginia was nicely placed most of the race in the top 5. In the end, she came in 6th... looking strong! Sam placed 3rd in the 4's and was given a cow-bell medal. I am soooooooooooooooo jealous!!!
Ess Eff Giro and Boo Boo
Labor day was laborious!
Rock on to the fellow CRCers! I loved watching Breego and Sam rip it up in their race. Woo hoo ladies!!
My race report... I was feeling pretty strong despite having not ridden at all during the work week, traveled to DC, had very little sleep and well, the strained Achilles. The doc said that I could have one more race this year and I chose the Giro. I love this course even with the grates, pitted streets, bumpy pavement, and railroad tracks. The crowd is always loud and fun!
About 35 women started the 3 race and I had no idea what would happen, but I knew that my ankle didn't have much time in the race and I was not going to be able to chase down any break. The pace was pretty fast and I decided to take the inside line on just about every turn. As you may recall, I love the gutter. No one ever wants it, but I love it. The primes were won by the Metromint girls and Carol from Davis. I almost found myself in a position for a prime and was itching to try and take it, but I was feeling like I had more to give and wanted to save it for the final sprint.
I was finding that the uphill wasn't hard, but the flat into the downhill straight right after the hill was taking it out of me as I was getting out of the saddle and putting it in a harder gear. At lap 21 of 24, the feeling started... my ankle started to feel like it was separated from my foot. I didn't have much left. In the 2nd to last lap I was off the back in the downhill and took to having to sprint back on the pack near the start finish. By the last lap, I was hurting. I think I was just about last when I came into the final turn and I started to sprint. I sprinted past a bunch of women and took 12th. I was bummed as last year this was a great race for me, but oh well, next year I will have my strength and hopefully I will be all better.
Virginia raced with me (she's in the photo with me) and was looking strong. She took 5th as she was saving up for the 1/2/3 race in which I was certainly not taking part. Virginia was involved in a crash in the 1/2/3 race and was a little banged up. She was super strong. Next time, V-bone!!
And to the fans: It is always nice to race locally and to have a large fan-base present! At the start, I heard my name called and my friend Rafael had come out to cheer me on. Also, the CRCers were in full force with Emily coming out despite being sick! Jim, Breego, Sam, Tim, Birgit, Gary and possibly Joad were cheering, although Joad had his race-face on for the kids fun ride. Don't mess with me, he said, I am racing today.
After the kids ride, I heard the funniest thing screamed out of a 2-yr old's mouth: "I want more race!!!!!"
Here's a photo of Tim aka team photog taking photos of the pro 1/2 race in the afternoon.
We also witnessed the tubular pop caused crash at the start finish after the first lap of the pros. Davis guy continued with most his ass showing, the Safeway guy decided to call it quits. Thankfully we missed the Lombardi guy going down hard with 16 laps to go. This caused the race to stop.
Here's my sorry ankle situation and the sexy night splint!
