Waynesburg Race!

It was questionable all the way up to race day whether or not I would be able to race Waynesburg. Luckily, my senior resident and attending had some mercy and let me skip rounds to do this race. Yay! I was also fortunate enough to pre-ride the course with JR, Laura and Justine. After the pre-ride I knew JR made an awesome course and was very excited to race. On race day I got up early to some pretty nice weather here in Morgantown, which has been rare lately and that pumped me up. I was hoping for the clouds to stay nice and for no rain. After packing up the car and heading out of town, the clouds came in and rain started. I thought it was gonna be a rainy mess for the race, but then the clouds broke and the sun came back out! So was super happy and hoping that the sun would stay out.

To warm up, I broke out the music and got on the trainer for a bit. I wanted to be good and warmed up for the first climb. I don't remember too much before the race, but anyway, I heard the call to line up and was glad to be starting with a bigger field than last time. I definitely did not want to ride by myself like in Morgantown RR. So the race started and my goal was to just stay with people and hang back and take the hill at a good pace. The ride out to the first climb started out moderate and I just concentrated on pedaling. As the climb approached, it didn't look as bad as it had the night I pre-rode it, so I just was able to spin up it and pass guys on the way up. Over the hill I caught up to a fast group of guys and decided to stay with them. Fellow teammate Betsy was in this group, so I tried to pace myself off of her. I knew that I wanted to show a better performance than at Morgantown RR so that was my goal to just push myself harder and stay with a faster group. I found that the rest of the race felt a lot like the local Wednesday night hammer rides and tried to use the skills I learned from those rides. I felt pretty strong the whole race. My legs felt good. All the way up to the last climb was a good pace and I was happy with where I was standing. Up the final hill I felt strong and then bombed down the last decent, which was super fast. On the stretch to the finish, Betsy, Stephanie and I took some turns going off the front. In the last mile, Betsy was stung by a few bees, I offered to do an emergency airway for her, but luckily she is not allergic. To the finish was a sprint and I came in behind Betsy and Stephanie.

It was really a great race and a great day. I was very happy to race with people and the course was awesome. Thanks to JR and everyone for all of the hard work.