Jaysus what a weekend. The basics:
Masters' Track State Champs. I was targeting the kilo, but not enough to actually try out different gear inches or get some quality advice. I spun out and got second place. arg. Normally I wouldn't be too upset about not winning, but the field was thin and I had lots more in the tank. So I went into the 3k pursuit with a little fire in my belly, but no pacing strategy. Somehow I pulled a 3:59, about a half second up on Chuck Judy. I was convinced he had it in the bag. I would have thought the officials would've grouped us a little more on account of the small field, but hey, 40-44 was almost the same field that 40-49 would have been. Good thing they didn't go totally by the rulebook, or the day would have possibly been rounded to 30+ and Jeff Whiteman would have won everything. It seemed like the big boys stayed home to rest for Nats, and somehow "Masters' 40-44 3k State Champ" just doesn't exactly blow your hair back, but I'll take it.
Meanwhile back in Gotham city, Ella got 2nd in the Chicago Triathlon, out of 152 in her division! Woot! Nearly last out of the water (they really ought to call the kids' ChiTri swim "water-jogging"). 3rd after a killer T1, then grabbed one spot in the run. The winner was even in sight, but with a little too much ground to make up.
Lang did his first 'real' soccer games, and man, trial by fire: 4 games in two days, in the heat, and up against some psycho suburban teams. He got a hefty plaque. I'm proud of him. He was working hard and having fun, and just givin' er. Soccer gets so little ink in this family, and he had a couple of great moves, a header or two, a couple reverses. Awesome.
Relay cross: I was slated to partner with Jannette, but after her crash, I got a shot at racing with Ella for the first time. She was a little spooked by the triple-bend/harbor drop/couch madness, but started to shine mid-first lap. The whirlpool taught her how to lean into the turns more than I'd been able to. We somehow finished 35th of 50, but more importantly, I had the best time ever at a cross race, and that's saying something. She was slightly shell shocked for a while, but she's definitely down for doing more cross. Hup! Hup!
Mom was domestique to the stars. Gotta go serve her up a vacation.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
My team is made of awesome
I'm taking a break from the self-imposed 'blog-about-every-race-experience' blackout (easy when you're dropped from the lead pack at Glencoe), but all racing should be as fun as last night at Soldier Field.
The cuttin' crew was rollin' deep, and we did one by the books in the first race. The players:
Andrew - Mechanical issues kept him from racing, so he drove the rickshaw down, with an injured Jannette and her sister on board.
Bradley - Flat in the first lap
RoadHouse - Crampy legs when he tried to move up. He just got into grad school yesterday, so one can't expect everything to go right.
Maxwell - Everyone could see cuttin' crew had the numbers in the race, so our attacks had to be taken seriously. Max and I led a few early to push the pace and soften the field.
Mike - Shows up out of nowhere with 2 to go, straight to the front, to pick up the pace and stretch out the field.
Me - With one to go, I take over and Jeff's yelling GO GO GO GO GO. I get 2/3 of a lap in, at the best pace I could manage.
Jeff - Jumps off my wheel and takes it home for the win.
I took a prime and Jeff took the other two. That's James Brown Tight.
Race #2 was a whatever, but with free entry for any repeat offenders, a bunch of people jumped in ass-dragging. Andrew managed to play a part in this race by offering a $5 prime on the 5th lap and the field imploded. Jeff took it, and I confess I let him stay up there, thinking he could repeat his last performance at Soldier, where he sat 3rd wheel in the break until unceremoniously stealing the win. I made a bunch of folks chase around me and didn't help anything. Pockets of 2, 3 riders everywhere and...oops, I see Heffy coming back. Time to make the donuts.
We get going again and we're in this little packlet of 4-5, then 10, then 8, then 4-5...all the while still 10 seconds off the three leaders. It wasn't so much working together as it was trading attacks to shell our group. It became clear that we weren't bringing them back and I decided to sit on Jeff's wheel and let him do the thinking for both of us. Around 3 to go, he was like "you ready?" and I'm thinking no, but saying yes. 1.5 laps to go and he ramps it up. Our group sees it coming but only Bicycle Heaven can respond, but he misses my wheel but stays in sight. Heffy pulls off in the penultimate turn and I go all in with a throw for good measure. Snap! 1 to go! I had a gap and just had to give 'er all the way around, and I see the leaders just a few seconds ahead. Could I? No. It wasn't meant to be, and I finished just off the podium, holding off Bicycle Heaven.
Mike from Mox was about the only wild card in the deck last night, finishing 3rd and 1st in our races, and that's with no team support. The main event turned out to be a pretty small affair, down to Liam and Padfield, with Liam FTW. Ah well, 1 win, 5 premes, a wooden medal for me, and my first proper leadout. Not a bad night for the team.
The cuttin' crew was rollin' deep, and we did one by the books in the first race. The players:
Andrew - Mechanical issues kept him from racing, so he drove the rickshaw down, with an injured Jannette and her sister on board.
Bradley - Flat in the first lap
RoadHouse - Crampy legs when he tried to move up. He just got into grad school yesterday, so one can't expect everything to go right.
Maxwell - Everyone could see cuttin' crew had the numbers in the race, so our attacks had to be taken seriously. Max and I led a few early to push the pace and soften the field.
Mike - Shows up out of nowhere with 2 to go, straight to the front, to pick up the pace and stretch out the field.
Me - With one to go, I take over and Jeff's yelling GO GO GO GO GO. I get 2/3 of a lap in, at the best pace I could manage.
Jeff - Jumps off my wheel and takes it home for the win.
I took a prime and Jeff took the other two. That's James Brown Tight.
Race #2 was a whatever, but with free entry for any repeat offenders, a bunch of people jumped in ass-dragging. Andrew managed to play a part in this race by offering a $5 prime on the 5th lap and the field imploded. Jeff took it, and I confess I let him stay up there, thinking he could repeat his last performance at Soldier, where he sat 3rd wheel in the break until unceremoniously stealing the win. I made a bunch of folks chase around me and didn't help anything. Pockets of 2, 3 riders everywhere and...oops, I see Heffy coming back. Time to make the donuts.
We get going again and we're in this little packlet of 4-5, then 10, then 8, then 4-5...all the while still 10 seconds off the three leaders. It wasn't so much working together as it was trading attacks to shell our group. It became clear that we weren't bringing them back and I decided to sit on Jeff's wheel and let him do the thinking for both of us. Around 3 to go, he was like "you ready?" and I'm thinking no, but saying yes. 1.5 laps to go and he ramps it up. Our group sees it coming but only Bicycle Heaven can respond, but he misses my wheel but stays in sight. Heffy pulls off in the penultimate turn and I go all in with a throw for good measure. Snap! 1 to go! I had a gap and just had to give 'er all the way around, and I see the leaders just a few seconds ahead. Could I? No. It wasn't meant to be, and I finished just off the podium, holding off Bicycle Heaven.
Mike from Mox was about the only wild card in the deck last night, finishing 3rd and 1st in our races, and that's with no team support. The main event turned out to be a pretty small affair, down to Liam and Padfield, with Liam FTW. Ah well, 1 win, 5 premes, a wooden medal for me, and my first proper leadout. Not a bad night for the team.
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