The Gate City Grind

First off, I want to say that I am so glad I went to the race this weekend! I had a fabulous time hanging out with my awesome teammates! And by the end of it all, I was really glad to get back home to the same life I had been so excited to run away from only days before. The weekend away was exactly what I needed.

Thursday morning I woke up with no intention whatsoever to go to the race. By afternoon, the wheels in my head had started turning.

I tried to talk myself out of it (see Thursday's post). That didn't work. Posting that blog entry just made teammates start calling and hounding me to go.

I tried to get Slingshot to talk me out of it. All he had to say was that it sounded like it would be good training and he thought I should go. He really is a great guy! So supportive. Even after I had been acting like such a high-maintenance brat. Or maybe he just needed the time with me away, too.

I tried to get my coach to talk me out of it. But, he was just like, "Yea, it's a fun race, you should go."

I checked with more teammates. I wanted to know if it was too late for me to be trying to sneak my way into their ride and room. But, no, they had plenty of room to take me along, and I could share a room with them, too.

Well, with everything falling into place for me to go to Idaho, I still needed to get out of a few obligations here at home. I made a few phone calls, and wah-law, that all worked out too. I was free to go!

I managed to get myself registered for the race with seconds to spare. By this time, it was getting late, so I went to bed. I knew it was my last chance to get a good night of sleep. I didn't sleep. I was too worried about all the stuff I needed to get done the next day. My teammates wanted to leave Salt Lake a lot earlier than I had expected. I only had three hours to get everything done that I needed to do. And I had a lot to do to prepare for a stage race.

I managed to get it all done, drive to Salt Lake, load up with my teammates, and we made the drive to Idaho. I was glad that we got there early enough to pre-drive the road race course, and do some goofing off and relaxing.

After a sleepless night, we got up Saturday morning, ate breakfast, and drove to Arimo for the road race. Our race didn't start until 10:35 a.m., so we had plenty of time to check in and get a good warm up. There were fourteen Cat 4 women (including a 12 year old and a 14 year old), two junior women, and one master woman racing with us. As the race started, there was a lot of jockeying around. It was quite sketchy at times and there was some mouthing off going on, especially by the teenage crowd. We made it up the first long climb with Kara off the front. The pack regrouped after the first turn. I stayed with the lead pack until the steep climb. When we had pre-driven the course, I knew I could climb that stupid hill with power, but when I got to it, I said "bye-bye" to the pack, and watched them climb away from me. What the...? I thought I could chase back on, but it wasn't meant to be. I knew I wasn't the first one popped off, so I worked hard to stay ahead of the others who were behind me. The last thing I wanted to hear was a voice behind me telling me that they had worked their butt off to catch me. I never heard it. They never caught me. But it sure was lonely racing more than half the race alone.
My Garmin says it was 33.02 miles, but I think it was closer to 34.

Pre-race:


Post race:


After the road race, we went back to the motel, showered, ate lunch, and tried to have a nap. Then it was time to get ready for the time trial. The results from the road race never got posted, so no one had a clue what time to be to the time trial. We were some of the first ones to the time trial course. We hung out and waited for the start times to be posted. Once the times were up, we realized that we had a while before our race times. It was so hot! We wandered around looking for shade and generally killing time. Finally, we decided we should start warming up. We headed out on a road on the other side of the railroad tracks. Clint had warned us to give ourselves plenty of time to get back in case a train blocked our way on the way back. Wouldn't want to miss our start time! Anyway, my teammates decided to take off to warm up without me because I was busy looking for the keys to lock the truck. I found the keys, took the keyless-entry remote, hid the keys, and left for my warm up. Kara rode slow to wait up for me, but I forgot to tell her where I'd put the keys. She didn't want to climb the hill we were headed for, so she turned around. Up the road I could see the rest of my teammates turning around, too. I still had a few more minutes before I wanted to turn around, so I kept riding. Alone. Out in the middle of nowhere. I got to a turn in the road, and decided it was a good time to go back. What a crappy road to descend! It was such bumpy chip and seal that I thought my brain was going to rattle out of my head. I started losing focus. Once I got on better road, I started wondering where I was. Had I turned at that intersection? I didn't think so. I kept riding. Nothing looked familiar. I started freaking out. I didn't even have my phone on me in case I really was lost. And, I was the only one who knew where the keys to the truck were! Finally, I crested a hill and saw the race venue. Whew!



The time trial was only 6.1 miles. Mostly flat road with a little descent and a little climb. I lost time when the holder-upper guy let go of me and I almost fell over. It was kinda funny. I also lost some time because I'm such a chicken when it comes to turning around. I don't know why I let it freak me out the way it does. I was not impressed with my time trial.

By the time we got back to Pocatello, it was getting late. We went and drove the criterium course in the dark. Margaret hatched the team plan for the next day, and I started freaking out. I don't like crits, and this looked like a doosey. We had a late dinner with the team at a little Mexican restaurant. Then off to bed. Mexican food was a bad idea so late at night. Another night with little sleep.

The next morning at the crit course, I really started wondering what the hell I was doing in Idaho. The course was lined with bales of straw, just waiting to be plowed into by wrecking bodies and bikes. I could only imagine the carnage that awaited me. I slowly rode around the parking lot, trying to get myself calmed down while I practiced cornering.

The criterium was 40 minutes. Luckily, it was earlier in the day when it was a little cooler outside. I lined myself up at the front of the group at the start line. I had gone over the course in my head multiple times, trying to figure out exactly where I wanted to be at each corner. The plan was that I was to stay in the front and help block the field while we sent teammembers off front. The plan worked for about the first half lap of the race. After the first tight corner, the speed ramped up and the field slowly filed past me. I hung onto the back of the pack for a couple of laps before being spit off. The two junior girls were behind me, and I figured if I had any chance of catching anyone, I had to let them work with me. So I slowed up and let them hook on. We rode around a couple of laps with me pulling before I decided it was their turn to work. I slowed down, signaled off, and looked back. Neither one would come up. I signaled again for them to come up. Nothing. Finally, I told them that they were going to have to come work or I would drop them. They waited until we had gone through some of the scarier corners, then came shooting around. I caught on to the back of them and away we went. A couple of laps later the lead pack lapped us. One of the juniors was able to hang onto them, but not for long. The chase pack came up behind me and stayed there. Cool. Now I was doing my job of blocking. I couldn't understand why they were just hanging out back there until after the race when one of them told me that they just were just too tired and needed a break for a while. With three laps to go, I was surprised to see a teammate not too far ahead. I dug in to try to catch her. With a half a lap to go, I was almost there when she turned around and saw me coming. I knew as soon as she saw me, I didn't have a chance. Sure enough, she dug in too, and she beat me across the line by two bike lengths.

After the race, we went back to the motel, showered, and went back to watch the rest of the races.



For the most part, I stayed in the shade of the tent to take my pictures. But BG was excited to go out in the hot sun and get some good action shots.



I'm thinking this is the Cat4 men with Shane off the front. Correct me if I'm wrong.






The Cat 3s. Seems like there were lots of wrecks in this group.






The Cat 1/2s. They had to race for 75 minutes in the 3 p.m. heat of the day. By the end of the race, half the field had dropped out.






Good times!