My First Upgrade Point!

Okay, so I spoiled the surprise, but I'm just too excited! I raced really hard this weekend and had my best placing ever at Tour de Dungeness #1 in Sequim, WA.

The weekend started Friday night as I tore through my house trying to pack for the weekend. I'm happy I brought extra jerseys, extra booties, extra ibuprofen, extra skewers ... because they all got used.

Note to self: Pack on Thursday. Driving on the peninsula in the dark is scary.

We stayed in Port Townsend in cottage #4 at the Swan Hotel, the same place we stayed last year. It is easy to unpack and pack the car there and they allow Wrigley to stay with us. Both are big bonuses.

It poured through the night, but I was thrilled to see clear skies when I woke up. The drive from Port Townsend to Sequim is beautiful. I can see why people choose to live out there. Not that I'd ever want to live out there, but I can see the attraction.

Because I'm super paranoid of full race fields, I was one of the first people to arrive. I was paranoid for a reason. There were 60 women registered for the race and our field is supposed to cap at 50. So what happens? They split the field! I've never seen it happen before. They split it by even and odd race numbers. Being #201, I raced with the odd numbers which included fellow teammates Lori, Eileen and Angelina. The even numbers wouldn't get to race until we were done so I felt bad that they had warmed up and would have to do it again.

I put myself in the front of the peloton and for the first time, led the roll-out. I wasn't sure when the actual race began so I just tried to stick to the lead car. Then people started to pass me. Then, I was pretty sure the race had started. This race was a 3-loop course for a total of 36 miles. For the first lap, I had taken a couple pulls and then hung out in the back. Towards the end of the lap, I wasn't quite sure why some of the racers were getting upset that not more people were pulling. And I thought, 'why would I do a bunch of pulling now? It's not like we are chasing a break.' Oh, but we were! I didn't know that a bikesale.com girl, Irena, had gone off the front and that a Group Health girl, Marsa, had joined her. Oops! Once I knew this, the whole plan changed.

The next lap was a Hagens and Cucina show. The two Hagens girls, Eileen and I did the majority of the pulling. I don't know if we gained on the breakaway at all, but we definitely tried. When the third lap started, I fell to the back up the first hill. Good thing, because ....

Crash! At the front of the pack, a bunch of girls went down. The crash hit my foot, which caused me to drop my chain, but I stayed upright! I kept spinning and prayed that my chain would catch back on. Meanwhile, the other 5 girls who made it out were pulling away from me. Ugh! Stupid chain! Get. Back. On! Finally! The chain took and I had to haul to catch back on. It was really windy so it took me awhile, but I finally caught them. It was so hard. I sat on for a few rotations before I started to pull again. Then, on the last sustained climb of the race, the Group Health girls in our group surged. It was a brilliant move because I had absolutely nothing left to keep up with them. Then, there were 3, and not long after, there were two—Kelly from Starbucks and me. We took turns pulling but couldn't catch the Group Health girls. I was taking stronger pulls so I thought I might be able to leave Kelly at the 1K mark.

Nope. I took off and she stayed with me, and in my attempt to shake her, I got tired and she was able to inch me out at the line. My final place was 7th.

How can I be disappointed? I finally cracked the top 10 and got my first upgrade point! Woo hoo!

The downside? I raced at Mason Lake the next day and had absolutely nothing left in the tank. I was even dropped by the pack in the last couple of kilometers. But! My teammates had a pretty good race. Tara was 7th and got her first upgrade point too! Woo hoo!

Once I start feeling rested, I'm sure I'll be excited to do it all again next weekend!!