U-Oaks

It has been a full week since the Dirty Kanza. My legs are still tired and I know better than to race. But it is a local race and my friend Cat wants to drive in from Waco to race. The big racing is in Tulsa this weekend so I anticipated small numbers at University Oaks in San Antonio. Cat and her husband make it into town on Saturday night and so I decide to race with her. Sunday comes and I am still covered in tegaderm and other bandages - heck, I still have staples on my hip. But I crawl onto my bike to warm up and feel the scab on my knee crack open. It takes a few minutes for the range of motion to feel comfortable but it loosens up and I feel ok. 16mph and I start to feel like a taxed slug. This is going to be bad. Women Open lined up with the masters men and we had a combined field of around one dozen. Cat and I were the only women. I expected to get dropped. It happened, but sooner than I thought....about 5 minutes into the race. Poop. Cat stayed in the field. It wasn't long before they lapped me on the ~1k course. I jumped on the tail but was off before the next lap. POOP. So I rode alone, and settled in. I motioned for the awesome photog to stop snapping pictures of me. I was embarrassed. Embarrassed to be alone off the back with people watching me. I put expectations on myself. Then, in my pity party, I get lapped again. I jumped onto the back again and this time I was able to ride out the remaining hand full of laps with them. I finished and cooled down alone, reflecting on the past month. I should understand what happened and that I need recovery but I still find myself disappointed. There will be ups and there will be downs.