Running from the Guillotine

Race: Clarendon Cup M35+
Result: Collapsed Lung & DNF (pulled on lap ~lap 15)
Cost Per Lap: $40 entry / 15 laps of 40 completed = $2.67/lap…sweet

All freakin’ week I’m pumped up to really suffer during this race, but c’mon Warner, starting nearly dead last didn’t quite get things started off on the right foot and it definitely wasn’t part of the plan. Yep, even after ALL of the warnings from the team about not being in the porto-john 15 minutes beforehand, I managed to screw this up.

Just to relieve any morning stress I went ahead and picked up my race number Friday evening. This gave me plenty of time to get to the race venue and get in a solid 45 minute warm-up. When I arrived, the course was already blocked off so I jumped out there and started hitting laps. I TRIED to mentally mark the sketchy areas in the road, but honestly there were so many that I switched to just trying to mentally mark the particular sections of the course I needed to really stay alert during. They did use some temporary asphalt filler on the really bad spots which was nice. I hit the turns at speed during warm-up and felt pretty darn comfortable. After I gained enough confidence in my ability to roll through the corners fast, I hit out off the course to get in a few more prolonged efforts to really get the blood pumping. My legs felt pretty darn good. Unfortunately, my PT on my Open Pro wheel is on the fritz so I didn’t have power during the race. Not that it really matters in the race, but it would have been nice to see the number afterward. I wasn’t about to throw on my 808 PT on this course.

It was just a little before 8 a.m. when the race director announced that staging would begin at 8:05. Cool. I’ll jump into the porto-john. I roll around on the course to the staging area and low and behold EVERYONE is ALREADY there. WTF. It’s not even 8:05 and I’m already last into the staging area for the 8:15 start. Great. I’m not making this mistake again! In technical crits, the first part of the race is really about getting staged as close to the front as possible. Screw the last 10 minutes of the warm-up. Getting staged correctly is more important in these fast races. They start announcing the call-ups and for some reason I’m not called up. I’m totally bewildered ;- ). The race doesn’t actually go until about 8:20.

I was a little nervous my “Custer warm-up as if my life depends on it” routine was all for not. I was mentally preparing myself to just start passing as many people as possible from the gun until I was about to puke. The gun went off. I clicked in flawlessly and I was sprinting to the first turn passing as many riders as I could. I just focused on being as aggressive as I could without endangering myself or anyone else. I was amazed at how many folks I was passing through a couple of the turns, especially the last one into the finishing stretch. I was easily moving 4-6 spots up every lap on that turn. I felt totally comfortable and rarely even had to touch the brakes. I kept my eyes focused through the turns which I think really helped…good advice guys! My warm-up seemed spot on as my legs were good from the get go unlike BikeJam.

Honestly, I lost total recognition of what lap we were on after number one. I was deep in the pain cave. I felt like I was doing Tabata intervals for the first 15 minutes. Interestingly enough, my lungs felt more on fire than my legs.

I knew the race would eventually whittle down to 20-25 guys. That meant I needed to pass about 50-60 guys to get where I needed to be to make the right side of the split. Well, I didn’t make it. I don’t know which lap it was, but the splits happened and I was now in a group of about 15 riders. Unlike BikeJam, I decided to try and stay at the front of this group and do as much work at the front as possible. I also wanted to get as much practice moving around the group as possible. I realized it was all about getting the workout in at this point since I knew my time out on the course was going to be limited. We made it 15 laps (~23 minutes) before the official gave the cut-throat signal and blew the whistle. Game over. I pulled off course with the others in my group.

Seriously, once I stopped, I realized my lungs were about to incinerate. I was like what the heck? I coughed up phlegm over the course of the next few hours. Interesting. I didn’t feel like I had any chest congestion before the race but now I do. It did make me feel better to know I gave it 100%. I did hit that point in the race where I considered throwing in the towel from the pain, but I’m happy I pushed through it. I gained a TON of confidence in my ability to handle my bike through a technical course. In some ways, I felt like a leaped to another level in that regard. That was the first really “technical” crit I’ve done. I also feel like I’ve reached the point where I can generate some repeated out of the saddle sprinting and feel comfortable doing it.

The winner, Pete Cannell, put in an impressive performance to say the least.

Here’s a link to some cool video of the race:
M35+ race