The TTT was the race Wendy and I weren't meant to do. After our ITT, we stayed at the finish and cheered each rider until all the riders were in--except one of our juniors. I started asking around if anyone had seen him, and pretty quickly we realized he must be off the course. Wendy and I were one of something like 5 cars of searchers, plus several police cruisers out, and other team members grabbed their bikes. Fortunately, our junior was located a bit later, and was fine. We're still not sure how the marshal missed him, and he missed the marshal, and went straight rather than turning. At least he was located pretty fast, once the search began. I wish we had realized earlier there was a problem.
That settled, Wendy and I raced back to the rec center, registered, and then had something like 8 minutes to try to spin all that lactic acid out of our legs before heading to staging. It wasn't pretty. I had barely sucked down my recovery drink, hadn't had much water at all for the previous hour plus, and didn't get any more food down. Just one gel. Had it not been for Alan and Daniel assisting us at our warmup area, I would still have had sweat-stained sunglasses and even less water than I had.
We weren't halfway down the first road when my legs were already heavy and painful. Egads. We slowed a touch, hit the rollers, and I knew my legs were cooked. That's when Wendy showed what a workhorse she can be. For every 30-second pull I did, Wendy was out front for 1-2 minutes, usually at a pace 1 or 1.5 mph faster than I could pull at.
I was drinking, but not fast enough--I needed my attention to try to stay on Wendy's wheel. I knew I was in bad shape when, halfway through the race, I stopped sweating. There were times I had to ask Wendy to slow, because I kept getting popped after my pulls. Not pretty; but I wasn't about to say what was going on. Then, on the finishing road, I was actually getting cold. This little bunny doesn't plan to let herself get that dehydrated, ever again!
Jim, having heard me fess up to Wendy how my body was doing, was advocating drinking water as we hit the parking lot. I knew better. I could only shuffle-walk when I got off the bike, and headed for the culvert. Yuck, I hate the taste of Accelerade when it comes back up. There it was, as if I needed it, the proof I really had given everything I had. Usually, when I have these little problems, it follows an asthma attack, but I finished this race without one. Once the stomach settled, I downed 20 oz of recovery drink, and another 30 ozs of water.
We're still not sure how we managed to get first place (ok, there were only 3 teams). We know the team that took second was comprised of women who had done the ITT, so they must have been hurting worse than us; and Kelly and Amy must have had an off day.
Thanks to Cyclist Connection (I loved my door prize!) for being a sponsor, and Jim, Wendy, & Mark Kimmerle for all their organizational efforts. Thanks to all the folks who came out to help and marshal, which freed me to go out and play. Even though I had an off day, I love the chance to measure myself like this, against the clock and others. One of these times, I'm going to make my goal, and know I'm back.
