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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by Rose Long
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Sunday, 15 July 2007 |
Horror at Harding Hill
EFTA NECS #5
Sunapee, NH
July 8, 2007
I woke up and my first terrorizing thought: Did I leave my sunroof open? It was pouring out and I have often made this fatal error. I ran out to the driveway and noted that my sunroof was safely closed. This was most fortunate as I had a three hour drive to the race in Sunapee NH.
When I pulled into the field/parking lot, I squeezed the ol' Saab between a van and a Civic and heard, "Rose, is that you?" I had managed to park next to my fellow collegiate nordic skier from Rome, ME. I showed off my new wheels and boasted that my Salsa Bandito frame weighed 3 lbs. It's sick.
The race was four laps (which gets a little boring) of mostly double track. On a scale of one to ten, the course was a 6. Little squirrely. One big mud pit which was pretty fun. I raced pretty hard for the first two laps until my body remembered that all I had consumed was two dollops of peanut butter before the race. I bonked hardcore. I've raced a thousand times and I have never hit the wall as hard as I did. Before my race, I was starving and all I had was a little peanut butter. The funny part is, I couldn't reach it with my fingers and had to use my multi tool to dig out the food. I think there is still a little peanut butter on the tork wrench. After my race, I did the whole struggle to keep something down as my body rejected what I could offer: nutella, water and an gu. The day ended well as my friend won his age group and we went swimming in Lake Sunapee.
On my home, I had two profound epiphanies:
1) I never race without fuel.
2) NH roads do not go anywhere. I think it took me twice as long to get home as it took to get there.
Rose
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