Labor Day musings

Labor Day has come and gone. With it, the last of the kiddo's are back to school, the last of the local bike road races are done (with visions of cyclocross dancing in the racers' heads), and my one and only tri for the season is in the books.

I'm racing the weather trying to get my house painted, and daily projects keep getting in the way -- things like my motorcycle tire getting a(nother) puncture, so I'm going to get new sneaks spooned onto the rims, meetings at my daughter's school, another race to time this Saturday, which includes a marathon, half, and 10K...

My race this past weekend went well, even with some small things happening along the way. In the swim, I got clubbed pretty hard. First time that's happened in... I don't know how long. [No, I'm not suffering from memory loss...] And some one used my mini-pump before the race, and when they put it back, they put it upside down to what I'd had it, so it slipped down and was giving my hamstring trigger point therapy with every pedal stroke. But in the end it was a great race, and I surprised myself -- 6th overall and 1st in my age group.

On the run portion, I was in a small group going up the hills, and the race had been so intermingled (sprint and Olympic), that there was no way to know who was doing which event... until the run courses split. And when that happened, I was the only one who went straight (onto the sprint course). I thought, wow... No one ahead of me?

I kept going, upping my pace as I could. In the last straight, a 19-year-old passed me, and I could hear some one else behind me. I looked at the last corner, and there were 2 there... I pushed the last 50 yards as hard as I could, and held them off. So was I actually 2nd?

Turns out there were 4 others ahead of us, up the road a full 3 minutes, so I never saw them. But for a little while, I could fool myself into thinking that I was leading the race. It felt good. Better even than the 5K I won earlier this year. In fact, it harkened back to a bike race I did in Wenatchee many years ago, that was a loop with a HUGE climb, which we did twice. On the first loop, I solo'd away from the pack, caught one other rider, and we made it over the top with a big gap. We held that into the second loop, and I solo'd away over the climb. All the way up, I kept telling myself that this is what racing is all about... I ended up 3rd in a 3-way sprint at the end, but going over the top of that second climb alone stands out as one of my most impactful racing moments.

Anyway, I'll get the motorcycle tires and the school meeting out of the way today, hopefully, then get the house done over the weekend... Or at least before it starts raining.