Race Report: Rutgers
March 5-6, 2011
New Brunswick, New Jersey
First cycling race weekend of the season! 17 of us drove down and stayed in host housing on the Princeton campus – seemed nice, although it was usually dark when we drove to the house (11 at night, 5 in the morning), so I didn’t see much of it. Our new kits look really sleek, which made the whole thing even more exciting.
ITT: The ITT course was very short, just 2.2 miles without any hills. I warmed up for a decent bit, then went quite hard on the course – average heart rate ~190, legs aching at the end, breathing hurting for a while. Overall, the way it ought to be for a 5:13 race. I ended up in 3rd out of the ~25 B women, which was awesome and quite surprising because I’m not a good sprinter, but I guess any sort of ITT is good for a triathlete.
Crit: This was a .8 mile, fairly flat crit with one sharp corner. I was really nervous going in, because the only B crit I ever raced was at Easterns last year, where I was dropped almost immediately and road around feeling miserable the rest of the time. I’ve trained a LOT since then, but still wasn’t feeling confident. However, I found to my surprise that not only could I keep up with the pack, but I could even get ahead or attack occasionally! Katie took off almost right away, not to be seen again until she lapped the rest of us, and I wasn’t sure how many other B riders were with her – turns out, none. So anyway, I heard the bell for a prime and decided I may as well go for 2nd.
Honestly, I don’t remember much of the tactics or what happened during the race, because I guess I was concentrating on not dying, but I managed to “win” (a lap behind Katie) two primes! Me, a non-sprinter Yay! When we came across the line and it still said “13 laps”, I was quite discouraged, because that sounded really terrible, but I suppose it wasn’t any worse for me than for the other girls, so it was OK. I need to work on drafting and staying in the paceline – there were a few times when I was kind of off the side of the line (usually on the section with the tail wind, so it didn’t matter much), so obviously was working too much. The other girls were really nice, though, and let me in; it’s nice getting to know some of them and become friends. Actually, a girl from my hometown (Sinead) who I met last summer races B’s, which is totally awesome!
Ended up in 5th, plus some prime points.
“Points” Race: This was basically just another crit, except the finish order didn’t matter as much as the prime lap points (unless you didn’t score any points, in which case the finish order determined the results). Upon seeing the course, I really dreaded this race; it was a .8 mile loop with a pretty significant hill, and the finish/points were scored halfway up the hill. Great, uphill sprinting, my specialty (not). Well, at least I could cheer and be happy for the climber/sprinters on the team!
Once the race began, my apprehensions were realized, as I (along with several others, thank goodness) was dropped the first time up the hill. I rode around, heart rate up at 190, slow, praying that Katie would just lap us and get us pulled.
However, after about 25 minutes (out of the total 50), I started to feel better; I thought about Coach Nicole’s advice to always “race your strength” so decided to pretend it was a time trial/triathlon and not worry about other people; I continued riding slow and steady up the hills then pushed it very hard to make up time on the downhills and flats. To my pleasant surprise, riders started to fall back; I continued on my steady endurance pace, and caught first one group, then another, then another, until I finally finished in 9th place – not great, but MUCH better than the bottom-10 I was in the first half.
Overall, I was very glad that the race was long enough for my endurance to win out, though I didn’t score points in any of the primes. At one point, Katie and Anna McLoon passed me, and I tried to hang on at least long enough to see our MIT cheering squad on the hill (they were AWESOME motivation and so sweet to wait out in the rain until late in the afternoon just to cheer for us).
Overall:The whole team did great, and it was really fun to watch the races; Christina dominated the C field (psyched for her to join me in B’s next time!), some of the men dominated the C’s and D’s, and obviously Katie destroyed the B’s (and A’s). Currently ranked #4 in B's, and can hardly wait for Philly!
