Sort-of Race Report

On Sunday I did my first time trial that was not sandwiched in between a swim and a run!

The TT was part of the San Jose Bike Club's Winter Series, and was a 15-mile loop that included roads that I ride all the time. And it only cost me $8. No reason not to do it, right?

Elliott and I were planning on riding the TT and then hopping on our road bikes to cool down and meander up to Los Gatos and get some food. I got to bust out my skinsuit and aero helmet for the first time, and Elliott managed to come up with a matching set, so we got to be matchy aero geeks for the morning.

I was the 5th-ish person sent off in a group of about 90, and was followed by a bunch of women. Elliott was about 14 people behind me, so I was instructed (by him) that my goal was not to let him catch me. We were set off at 30 second intervals. I caught the "person" in front of me in the first minute, but this "person" was a 12 year-old(ish) kid and his dad, so not impressive. I caught the woman in front of them within the first couple miles. And then I was alone for a long time.

The route took us down the very flat Santa Teresa road where there is usually a tailwind, but I didn't have the benefit of one that morning. We turned right on Willow Springs and hit the climb (not my favorite), and that actually felt pretty good. We turned right again on Oak Glen toward Uvas Road, and this section went pretty smoothly and felt shorter than normal.

Once we turned onto Uvas a headwind materialized, and it pretty much sucked from then on. The first person to pass me did so a couple miles into the Uvas section (right about where it becomes McKean), and this person happened to be Elliott. Balls.

So much for that goal.

I was drooling enough at that point that it didn't click that it was him until he was well past me, even though we were wearing matching kits. He didn't say anything when he went by, and later told me it was because he was a little miserable. Glad I wasn't the only one.

Another guy passed me right before we turned onto Bailey. I cared for about four seconds. We turned up Bailey, I stood up for the little climb, and got a little time to recover on the descent (it's a fun one too!) I had the bright idea to hammer it from the bottom of the climb to the finish since it's pretty much flat, but figured out the hard way that it was a really looooooong section. Ouch!

I dragged myself to the finish, rode around for a bit to cool down, changed into my other riding clothes, and hopped on my rode bike. I was now freezing, and unable to form sentences. My attempts at conversation amounted to single-syllable words in no logical order. Ummmm....never had that happen before! The whole ride-to-Los-Gatos plan died pretty quickly so we improvised with breakfast food in Morgan Hill.

I kind of got my ass kicked.

So I'll be doing that again.