Last week was my last Wednesday night crit of the year as it's time to go back to school. Figuring I definitely had nothing to lose, I decided to try to get away in the B race and try out the A race for the first time.
On the second lap of the B race there was a prime for $10 at Colter's BBQ. Having one BBQ prime from early in the season, I have been trying hard to get a second to make the trip to Arlington worthwhile. Sitting in the back, I didn't know there was a guy up the road so I took off and got a sizable gap and , even better, had two guys with me. Grabbing the second place bike fit prime I pushed on, taking turns with my two partners. Unfortunately, our time out front was only two laps and we were swallowed up by the group on lap four. I boded in the back and just a couple laps later there was another BBQ prime. With no one up the road, the pack didn't push the pace and I slowly worked my way to the front by the time we were halfway through the lap. I stood and sprinted off the front early, drawing only one challenger who pushed ahead of me and I grabbed his wheel. He faded just a little and I blew past him, chancing a glance back to see I had built a pretty sizable lead. After getting the $10 of BBQ I was pretty satisfied with my effort thus far.
A couple laps later my B race ended as there was a big acceleration that broke the pack up and forced me to unsuccessfully chase my way back into the race. Knowing I was done, I turned the opposite direction to do some easy spinning before the A race.
Twenty minutes later the A race began and I was really nervous. Standing on the starting line with Kyle Sigl and Stan Phillips was pretty intimidating so I stuck to the back. I had really good time in the race, even though I didn't last too long. I stayed in the group and tried to just hang on, which I did for four laps. On number 4 there was a big acceleration as a guy made a move up the left side and I had no chance to keep up as Stan and Dillon from ThinkCash pushed hard to bridge up and left me behind.
The next week (Aug 19th), I raced the final Trinity 5000 of the year, looking to break the season best of 16:33. Right away I was off the front and pushing hard. I went through the mile all alone in 5:14 and was already hurting a little and my mouth was dry from breathing hard in the heat. I went around the U-turn cone at 7:59 and knew the time was slipping away from me. Pressing alone I went past the 2 mile sign in 10:43, well off record pace. I was going to need to drop my time down on the last mile quite a bit, but I knew it was in reach if I pressed just a little bit more. As 16:00 ticked by and I had yet to reach 3 miles I knew the record was gone, but at least the victory wasn't. I crossed the finish in 16:48, a less-than-stellar performance but reasonable for the high temperatures and after an A.M. bike ride. Second place came across the finish line in the 17:40s; I took consolation knowing he finished the year as the overall series champion, but I really wanted to break the record as it was set by a certain professional triathlete...
Now I'm at school and hoping to keep up with my blog as much as possible, probably mostly on weekends. Expect Daily Headbang to take a little more priority as it is news. Thanks for reading!
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