Sunday was the first spring series race for 2012. This series is what I consider to be the start of the racing season in NYC though there are a few CRCA and NJ races just before. As these races are at the asscrack of dawn, I went with a proactive approach and stayed with my brother up in washington heights the night before rather than getting up at 3am to drive in. Saturday was spent preparing, getting kit together, making sure the bike was in prime shape and pre-filling the release forms and whatnot. What wasn't done, however, was eating. I had a very light breakfast and skipped lunch entirely. Why, I can not recall. Either way, I caught the train, and got in to Penn around 8pm, met up with my brother and his wife, and we went out for a nice dinner. They were doing a 5k race the next day, so we went out to Coogan's to have a nice big meal.
Having not eaten much earlier in the day, I was starting to feel the drinks I had with the meal by the time we got back to the apartment. Now restless, I watched some TV and helped with some tasks around the house as I slowly saw the clock tick past midnight. Eventually I headed to bed, setting the alarm for 5am. I think I briefly touched on sleep before I found myself laying in bed wide awake with a cat sitting on my legs. This was how I spent my night until 4:45am, when I gave up and got ready to race.
I figured since I didn't eat much yesterday, I would have a good sized breakfast. Opened the fridge: no bread, no milk, no orange juice. Well crud. I ended up with just a glass of water with some strawberry syrup in it for good measure and a crushed granola bar I had left over in my bag. I got dressed, headed out and rode to the race. I stopped at a grocery store near 90th street to buy a banana and then went into the park.
Registration was painless, pinned my number, chatted with some of the guys I knew, hit the head one last time. Alan and Sandy showed up and let me store my extra gear in their dog walker stroller thing they have. I love it when they're at races. Warmed up with paul from the kreb team and then toed the line. We were told that the field filled up, so there would be 150 cat 3/4's racing today. shit. I lined up next to Mattie, and we talked about our odds of survivng the day. Behind me a few rows was Chris from the Kreb.
The race started without a hitch and we were off. I tried to stay mostly near the front. The field felt very nervous, with lots of extra yelling and braking, stupid moves and people throwing their bikes all over the road when attacking. Despite this, I felt pretty calm. I knew there would be crashes, so I figured I should just stay attentive and deal with them as they come. The first one I saw was right at the start of harlem hill, if I remember correct. Looked like someone chopped someone else's wheel or something. They were on the left, and I was on the right, so it didn't bother me. Around this time I found myself at the front riding up the hill at a good pace. We hit the top and I felt like I was still riding with the same intensity, but suddenly I found myself sliding straight back in the group. I knew this was trouble. I knew it was from no sleep and little food. I knew my only bet was to just sit in the group. So that's what I did, tailgunned for the rest of that lap. My garmin says our average for lap 1 was 25.6mph.
Past the start/finish line and we're on to lap 2. I'm still just barely hanging on, staring at the wheels in front of me. Up harlem hill, down again. Along the backstretch I start feeling a little better after a gel, and I manage to work my way up enough to find Chris. We talk for a little, I mention how I'm barely hanging on. This is around the SW corner of the park, right where the road necks down before turning up horseshit alley. I know this is a bottleneck. I've known that since the first lap I did on the course. Why others don't know this, I have not a clue. All of a sudden everyone is shouting "BRAKING!" and a pile up is starting in slow motion. I stay up, despite guys falling down in front and flying over the curb behind. The damage is done, though. I'm stuck trying to get around two guys untangling their bikes, and suddenly I'm gapped. I try desperately to join on to other groups of riders trying to bridge back up, but my legs just aren't there. I still try the best I can and finish lap two with my head down trying my best to reconnect. Average speed: 25.7mph.
I make a decision and figure I'll just try up until harlem hill. Maybe the curves and the rollers can work to my advantage. Sadly, it was not to be, so after cresting the top, I sit up and spin my way back around to the finish line where I sat and watched the finishes of the other races, picked up my stuff from Sandy and met up with Mattie to check out the Grant's Tomb course. From what I've heard, the grand total was 5 crashes, at least 3 in the 3/4 field, and one in the cat 5's that required medical assitance which I hear caused quite a mess from people trying to sprint around two ambulances at the base of the cat's paw climb just before the finish.
All told, I think just about everything that could have gone wrong did, short of a mechanical issue. That's racing, I suppose.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/154862662
NP/IF/TSS: 235W/1.044/89
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