Race Report: Morgantown April 7, 2012

At the end of last summer, I made the commitment to bike racing in the summer of 2012.  Spring approached, and with it the first road race of the Abra series: Morgantown.   Over a month in advance, I looked at the specs:  50 miles; 3,000 feet in elevation climbs.

I was terrified.  I had nightmares the whole week before the race ("bike terrors").  I had been riding like mad that month before, terrified of getting picked up by the truck at mile 30 because I couldn't complete the race.

Morgantown bike course elevation profile.

Come race day, the weather was beautiful.  Sunny and in the 60's.  In the gravel parking lot I got on my bike to start warming up, and in front of a whole bunch of dudes in spandex promptly fell off my bike and skinned my leg up.  In other words, I was real nervous.

I had been riding so much in the weeks leading up to the race that by this point I was confident that I would finish.  My race pie-in-the sky goal was therefore to finish within 20 minutes of the second to last person.  If I was last, fine, but I wanted to come in reasonably close to someone else.

Suzanne Atkinson was really there for me this race.  On the Thursday before the race, she came to the oval, gave me tips on how to improve my cornering, and told me some encouraging things which helped me mentally.  When I woke up Friday from another bike terror, I calmed myself with, "Suzanne said you're 'strong and powerful'!".   She also suggested I tape course notes to my handlebars, so I taped the elevation and miles diagram, which I was really glad to have during the race.
She was also there at the race and rode in the car.

Workin' the first hill

The race starts, and we are a whole pack of women - cat 1/2/3/4 riding together.  Fortunately, we start off at an extremely do-able pace, so I'm just riding my bike and paying attention to what everyone else is doing.  Such as, whose front wheel is all over the place, who is riding in front, etc.  And those first 20 miles were fantastic; comfortable pace, we all stuck together, and I was thinking, "Wow, this is great!  This is easier than 20 miles on a weekend ride, and we're moving faster!  Why don't I always ride in a group!".  Then we got the first big hill, and half the pack just went [race car sound effect].  Kam and I were in the middle, and she looked at me and went [race car sound effect] up the hill.   I rode up the hill solidly on my own, and then got to go down it (weeeee!), and when I slowed down at the bottom, I remembered there were women behind me.   I slowed down, ate some snacks, and just kept looking back.  Finally, there they were!  Stacie (Steel City Endurance) and two other girls from Dynamic Physical Therapy.  They caught up and Stacie just goes "Get on my rear wheel!".  The four of us pace lined through pretty much the whole rest of the course, admiring the beautiful scenery, saying "hi" to cows, thanking our good volunteer race marshals and so on.  I kept exclaiming, "I'm in learning experience heaven!", as I have next to no bike racing skills whatsoever.  Stacie really kept us together; that girl is a natural team player.

Dr. Poboy, Morgantown finisher!

We arrived to the final hill, which I think was the most brutal of them all because we had been riding for awhile.  I climbed it the fastest out of our little group, so I was in the front at the descent.    Once I started descending, I had this sudden moment of "Holy crap!  4 miles left!  I'm not only going to finish this race, but I'm making my race goal!"  This prompted to me to brake cautiously at every scary downhill corner, telling myself, "You did it!  Don't do anything stupid or greedy!  Just finish girl!".  At some point the stronger of the two Dynamic Physical Therapy girls whizzed by, and I gazed enviously at her developed bike skills the way she handled corners.  A few minutes later, the less strong of the two whizzed by, and I was back on the flat with a sign telling me I was almost done.  At this point I just started riding my bike.  And that  was the race!  According to my bike computer, my time was 2:49.

I was very disappointed that the race officials did not record my time for posterity.   But I can get over that, because I was smiling like a mofo after that.  According to the official times, the number one female raced it in 2:29:47, and the number one cat 4 female time was 2:33:18, so I even came within my 20 goal minutes to the leader!!