I was pretty nervous about this race. Home court and all. I sort of drifted around and hung out in the morning, saying hi to all my old collegiate buddies, then went back home to get ready. I ran into the other Michele Smith, from University of Rochester, and she decided to do the USCF women's race (she'd broken a cleat and dropped out of the collegiate race). We set up our trainers near the starting line and got a pretty good half hour warm-up. Ed Parsons, who I met a couple years ago racing collegiate, came by to say hi and invited me to hang out with the team afterwards. He wrote his number on my race number and it made me feel like quite the bad-ass to be racing with this cute guy's number on my back.
As it turned out, only eight women did the race. I stayed with the "pack" in the beginning, and then got caught in a bad position, maybe about midway through. I had just taken a pull and gone to the back. It was on the downhill section of the course and I got stuck behind someone who let a gap open up. I just didn't have the power to chase back on. There were three girls in front, including my teammate, Heather Peck, and two girls from Gearworks. I was with Michele and Elizabeth Lafavour. We stayed together until the end and I won the sprint. Mark A. said it was a bit ridiculous-looking though because neither of them contested it and I was ahead by about 10 bike lengths. Oh well.
I stayed to watch the men's race and then spent 2 minutes driving home. If only all races could be this close to my house.