driving through a very dark state to get the to the land of
hippies/vegans

the drive
as is usual with all group road trips, we got a late start.  we planned on
being on the road at 6.  we actually got on i93 after 8 pm.  i was already
sleepy but figured i'd probably be okay for the road race.  i went up with
steve and mike, who regaled me with fabulous tales of tufts cycling team
members of years past, back when, as eric johnson would say, i was buying
my first training bra.  (i usually reply: "you mean yesterday?")

we drove through new hampshire, which mike noted is a "very dark
state."  after stopping for subway sandwiches, which ended up all over
mike's volvo, we finally arrived in lovely south burlington.  we had a  
decent room at the swiss host, where we shared the parking lot with
monster cars/trucks and lots of plastic furniture... it was like being in
new hampshire.

joy of all joys, the room had two fulls and a twin, so i got my own
bed.  nice.  and no snoring 19-year-old boys next to me.  just a snoring
28-year-old boy. =)  (that would be steve.  across the room.)

the road race
i was really nervous about the race.  65 miles, up two gaps in
vermont.  extremely hilly.  living near boston, the biggest hill around is
prospect hill, which takes me six minutes to get up (and that was when i
was still dizzy and tired from my xc trip).  i was not looking forward to
multiple several-mile-long climbs.  but i figured it was good training for
killington, and a good dry run for food, water, etc.

in my nervousness, i drank a lot before the race started and had to go to      
the bathroom around 7 or 8 times in the final half-hour.  i finally just
started going behind cars near the starting line, and got some poison ivy
on the back of my leg.  (mike's writing a book about cycling medical
issues, and he said he would tell my poison ivy story in his
"environmental" chapter.)  a couple of my cat 4 teammates apparently
thought i was stretching a lot. =)

we finally rolled out.  the field was fairly large, with pros, 1s, 2s, and
3s combined.  we were neutral for the first three miles.  on mile 5,
genevieve jeanson (a very fast pro) attacked.  the wheel van followed her,
leaving the remaining 25 or so of us wheel-less.  i didn't feel bad
though.  i didn't put in spare wheels because this was just one of those
races where flatting is a sign to stop.

we never saw genevieve again.

i was feeling really good.  i couldn't believe how good my legs felt,      
despite the 50-miler i'd done on thursday.  i maintained a good position,
4th or 5th, didn't do too much work, and just enjoyed feeling good.

then we got to middlebury gap.

i was climbing really well and then i just blew up.  it's pretty rare for
everything to work out perfectly in one race and i just let myself get too
hungry, or tired, or something.  i managed to keep pushing my lowest gear
(39x26 on 700c wheels).  usually i can pass people on hills but not on
middlebury.  although i did pass one girl who was walking with her shoes
off.

jessica barnum, a friend of mine, was ahead of me after we crested.  i
caught up to her on the downhill and we worked together to regain the
closest group.  we picked up karen nash along the way and got in with a
pack of 10 or so.  five girls were already up the road.       

a few of us tried to organize a chase, but it just wasn't going to
happen.  this was the first time i felt like team tactics were ever really
used effectively against me (and others with no teammates) in a race.  the
gmbc and bell atlantic mobile girls sat up because they had teammates up
the road.  sara cushman of nebc started doing a lot of work at the
front.  sue frederickson (ecv) and i did some pulling as well, but we all
gave up when it became apparent we weren't going to catch
anyone.  "there's no point in towing them all to the finish," sue said.

however we did try to pick up the pace a bit when we heard there was
another group gaining on us.  eventually, liz begosh, 1998 national
collegiate cyclocross champion, caught us.  but out of nowhere rose a
steep hill.  i saw it and said "oh my god."  it was short but painful, and
we shed a couple of people, including liz, on that hill.  i made my way up
it slowly and managed to maintain contact with the group over the top.

i stayed at the back for the next couple of miles, which was on       
hard-packed dirt.  it was actually a tough ride, because of weird
depressions in the road that were difficult to see with sunglasses
on.  but i felt mt biking with the guys from the bike shop (brian, nate,
and jason p) was really helpful and i maintained speed though to the
pavement.  in the middle of the dirt section a car and the occupants began
cheering and clapping for us.  i was in so much pain that i was really on
the edge, trying to keep motivated by telling myself how much i wanted to
do this race, that a lot of races in my future will be that tough and that
long, and the cheering family made me pretty emotional for a second there.

we were around mile 50 or 55 i think at that point.  jessica said, "it's
all suffering from here."

i felt okay on the hill, but couldn't really stick with attacks.  but i
felt like i was climbing decently well, although the last mile (65 or 64,
i think) really hurt.  and the last kilometer was a real wall.  i did a
lot of traversing across the road to get up, not having the energy to          
stand in my 39x25.  i ended up finishing 12th, the 5th cat 3 on the
official results.  genevieve jeanson, having finished a 1/2 hour earlier,
was already changed and hanging out.

we passed mike, who was sick, on the final climb and he'd saved a water
bottle for me.  isn't that sweet?  but i was fine with my cytomax, extran,
powergel, and let's not forget zantac.

after the road race
hung out with the guys.  eric and andy and mark fished instead of raced,
and i had a piece of the trout andy was cooking.  we went to eat and i had
a great bacon cheeseburger, as usual.  we passed a nice trout stream and
eric was so excited he said he almost didn't notice the topless woman
swimming there.

that evening we went into burlington.  i figured it would be easy to find
a vegan place there for mike since it's such a crunchy town, but we ended    
up getting burritos that were microwaved.  andy said, "this really makes
me appreciate picante."  (great burrito place in davis sq.)

street sprints
i entered street sprints saturday morning.  200 meter downhill sprints in
groups of 4.  i lost the first one, badly, but figured out the key: a
really strong start.  so i really stomped on the pedal and won the
loser's bracket.  then i took the final an hour or so later, taking home
$70. =)  i bought the guys dinner, needless to say.

but the bad thing about doing street sprints was that, on top of my 3 hrs
and 40 minutes racing the day before, i'd spent almost 2 hours, between
sprinting and warming up on my trainer, on the bike before the criterium
even started.  i'm not trying to make any excuses, but i was pretty tired.

i got a pretty bad start, not being pushy enough to get a spot on the
front line.  i got shut out on the inside of the first corner and braked   
to avoid eating it on the sidewalk.  so i worked my ass off the next 5
laps or so to get into a decent position, and i was able to maintain 4th
or 5th the rest of the race.  i have never been in so much pain before,
ever.  i know i say that every race, but i was just so spent.  my vision
seemed clouded.  i was letting small gaps open up all over the place and a
lot of the time i couldn't even look up.  i just put my head down and
hammered.

i managed to avoid doing very much work at the front, but when everyone
started moving up with 2 to go, i was too cooked to maintain position.  so
i was far back during the sprint, which i was disappointed about because
it was a big hill, my strength.  oh well.  14th.  the 7th cat 3.  the guys
said i looked relaxed and casual (?!) even though i was suffering wicked
hard.  they also said they saw me get elbowed a lot, but to be honest i
don't even remember.  andy was pleased that women's races are starting to
get rough.              

andy dropped out of the crit with a coughing fit, and ended the weekend
saying that the sorest part of his body was his wrist, from
fishing.  steve stayed in a little longer.

home again
we started later than i would have liked, but not everyone has to be in
bed by 8. =)  we stopped in hanover, nh to have dinner with leigh, who
used to be on the tufts team way back when with eric, andy, steve, and
mike.  finally started heading back.  i think we got in around 10 or
10:30, then went to eric's house to pick up everything and i ended up
getting about 4 hours sleep and drank a lot of coffee on monday.

so to wrap up, it wasn't a spectacular weekend, results-wise, but i was
really happy at how i suffered in the race and the crit.  i feel like i've
actually made a lot of progress since the beginning of the
season.  just last april i needed a 39x32 to make it up appalachian
gap, the finish of the road race.  and the weekend was a pretty good test  
for killington.  i think i'll be okay with the 2s.

postscript
a couple of things i can't believe i forgot to mention.  first of all,
genevieve lapped the field twice in the crit, then led out the girl
who won second place.  unbelievable.  somewhere in the middle, a
woman near me joked, "it must be real challenging for her to come down
here and beat mothers and full-time workers."

secondly, a funny story.  we didn't have much room once andy and his
bike joined me and mike and steve in the volvo, so we sent a bunch of
stuff back with eric.  betty was supposed to go with eric, but mike
and eric felt bad separating us because i looked so sad when they
took her away.  eric said later, "it gives a whole new meaning to
the word 'bisexual.' "  i pointed out that they all have spouses
and fulfilling jobs, etc.  i have betty. =)