FLCC> My first completed criterium!

[Graceful Gardens, Mark and Amanda Shenstone]

"The miracle isn't that I finished; The miracle is that I had the courage to start"

That's a quote from John Bingham, a writer for Runners World Magazine and a back of the pack runner. 
This quote came to mind as I mulled over my weekend experience at the Hagerstown Criterium. I am not Criterium material. No, really. I turn corners as if I was a solo rider on a car-less boulevard. But I had been having a lot of fun lately at the Tuesday night races and also with my velo bella sisters at other central NY races. My parents live in Hagerstown, MD and I was due for a visit and well I couldn't resist signing up for the woman 3/4 race despite my lack of experience, my recent crash, Charles's crit crash,Laura's crit crash, and complete exhaustion from last Tuesday's race.

I decided to check out the .8 mile course the night before, meeting a fellow newbie from the Philly area. We checked out the all left  hand turns & some were sharper than 90 degrees.  I felt better about it all and by morning I convinced myself that I could do this. Once I get going I forget my fears or so I told my self. Upon arrival the next morning I rode my bike to a corner to watch the masters race. As soon as I get there 2 guys were down, one who was carried off by the waiting ambulance team. I noted a few other minor crashes. The next race was cat 5. I watched by the first corner and all looked good when suddenly by the 2nd to last lap almost the entire field went down...and it wasn't even a corner! They stopped the race to clean up the carnage (one serious or at least painful injury, possibly a broken leg) They restarted the race with the 10  or so remaining survivors for 1 or two laps. Then it was the women's turn.

All of the above seemed like a bad omen and on top of that I had my nearly 80 year old mother watching her first race (and she had just witness the decimation of the cat 5 race). I was wondering what I got myself into. Fortunately that was balanced by the friendliness of the 30( more or less) woman in attendance. And Karen LoParco formerly of Ithaca was there to officiate and she put me at ease as well. The Cat 3 and 4 women were to race together but scored separately for 45 mins plus 2 laps(?) Primes were every other lap (?). The whistle blew and of course I couldn't get clipped in, a typical beginners mistake. Instantly I played catch up to the first corner and felt out of breath with the effort. After the first turn it was slight uphill. No time to catch my breath here. On to the next corner: super sharp turn on a downhill with a 4 million dollar stone house to greet you if you missed the turn. I get the hang of it and everyone is holding their lines. The next stretch is fast and the corner round as is the next corner and a fast final stretch. I felt safe or at least focused but I was always just hanging on and breathing hard. It wasn't long before some of us got separated. We did our best  to work together and try to get back on but with main pack having cornering finesse, prime motivation and better fitness their gap grew and by the last quarter of the race we were swallowed up by them. Luckily we didn't get pulled from the race and we had a free ride for a couple laps but again the demands were too great for some of us & we were left behind. Myself and the two women left with me made the best of it. We shared the work til the final corner and I led out in the final stretch until almost the line where they both came around me. 

Although nearly last, I was totally psyched, had a great workout, and was happy to be alive  Although I may not sign up for another crit anytime soon, I can see how they could be addicting and it is a temptation not to try and get better at it. But for now I'll leave the crits for those with health insurance.
Thanks for listening,
Amanda





-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/flcc_icycle.org/attachments/20060710/5ad9eb7e/attachment-0001.html