Race Report

Here's how my Saturday went.

-Alarm goes off at 5:00AM. Shit I've gotta get going. I calculated that I needed to leave Salem no later than 6:00AM to get to Gig Harbor in time to get through registration, duke, prep the bike, pin numbers, kit up, piss, roll around looking good and make it to the start line on time.
-Load my bike and gear. Load Cree's bike and goodies taking extra care not to scratch the new bike.
-Hit the road.
-Stop at Starbucks for coffee and a bagel
-Dammit no bagels! Fine, give me that walnut-rasin baggett....yuck. But it was a better choice than frosted lemon pound cake.
-Drive north
-Crank up i-Pod
-Crap I forgot my sunglasses. I guess I'll be squinting all day
-Countinue driving north
-Contunue blasting my playlists
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-Still driving
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-Sweet the Tacoma narrows bridge. I then realize I still have a problem with giant man made expanses across bodies of water. As i cross trhe bridge I notice I'm hunched over the steering wheel driving very tense and my palms are sweaty.
-Find the race and park the hooptie
-Get my rental number and go through the pre race rituals
-Hear how everyone is searching for late season upgrade points, myself included.
-Line up at the start. We didn't really have a pre-race meeting, or maybe I just wasn't included, or maybe i just missed it because I was too busy rolling around flexing for the fans. Anyway, it was kinda known that because this was Gillette's race he should get the win and he placed 3rd at the first race of the series. Col by me. He wins, I get a top 5 and get to keep all my toes.
-Race starts. Russ is the offical in the caravan behind us. If I get dropped I'm sure he'll ask the driver to run me into the ditch to put me out of my misery. That's motivation.
-The course is sweet. One longish climb followed by a buch of false flats and rollers.
-Broadmark is active all day marking guys and attacking the group. We had 5-6 guys and Garage had the same. Wines was there and Second Ascent. So there were some teams represented.
-It was apparent that the race was going to come down to a sprint finish as nothing was getting up the road. Typical cat 3 racing. Oh well.
-Race finish. 3 Miles to go: take a flyer with a Second Ascent rider. No soup! We come back. 5km to go I'm sitting 6th wheel and a RAD racer puts me into the ditch! I recover without losing any ground and promptly flick the RAD racer and take the 5th wheel. 1km to go: the pace is getting hgher and Gillette is second wheel. 350 meters to go: Gillette goes long, damn! He's got big balls! 200 meters to go: We get both lanes and I come out into the left lane and wind it up. 100 meters to go: I've passed the five guys that were in front of me including Gillette. 50 Meters to go:....holly shit I'm going to win. Across the finish line: Arms in the air and a holla! I hope my jersey was zipped up for the photos.
-Feel a sense of releif as in 5+ years of racing bikes this is my first win.
-Get congratulated by every Broadmarker I see.
-Find out we went 1-2 in the sprint.
-Hear there was a nasty crash in the group at 100 meters and a Broadmark rider went down.
-Immediately go back to find out if they are OK.
-Find out it's Ted and he's pretty banged up. Damn it! And he's the wheel I was on fo most of the final 10km. Get well soon!
-Ride back to the parking lot feeling on cloud nine.
-More congratulations.
-Change.
-Hand off custom Marcroft for delivery to Russ's brother.
-Hit the road home, calling and texting everyone I've ever trained with.
-Stop at Burgerville for a cheese burger and fries...don't judge! I earned this!

In all: 8 hours of driving, 1.5 hours of racing and my first win. Not too bad.