Eric and I get to the group about 2 minutes before the start. Perfect. Wanted to be fresh from my warmup. The problem was we couldn't get towards the front, which was a huge early mistake. This forced me to the back of the pack to begin the race.

As we start off, I'm thinking this is a nice comfortable pace. Then I look at the Garmin and we're pushing 30 on some flat road. The HR is in the low 150's, and I know I can keep this HR for this entire course. First hill comes up, and roll into a sprint. I was excited, and we push what I thought was fairly hard up a couple small rollers. Looking at my Garmin now, I wasn't pushing fairly hard. This is where I hit a 187 HR.

But in between the hills, the weirdest thing happened. We're braking. Why are we braking? Maybe the guys up front are screwing around. At least that's what I thought. They were likely soft pedaling, because that's what roadies like to do to wear out those who don't belong apparently. I was not ready for this at all! I don't do these hard intervals getting my HR above LT. I do tempo. Long, steady tempo. This was just a precursor of things to come.

The group settles in, and I'm constantly having to brake, then hammer. Brake, then hammer. We finally make a left turn, and I'm tired. My HR has been floating in the 160's, getting above 170 for probably 1/3 of the race by now, and we're really not even moving that fast! But unless I can make my way to the front, there's not much I can do but fall in line. I mean, there's 70+ riders packed into this peloton that occupies the entire lane.

So that's how it goes for a good while. Then around mile 12-15, it happens. Apparently a rider got caught creeping up on another guys wheel, and down he goes! And of course, the guy behind him is down. And the next guy is down. And I swerve hard to the left, violating the yellow lane rule, to avoid the chaos! But I was close. I mean, really close. I saw a bicycle at least 10 feet in the air rotating forward. And I had to take some deep breaths to calm myself down, because I was starting to freak out a little.

Once I regained my composure, I realized I had lost alot of ground. So I had to bridge the gap with a sprint, which took maybe 20-30 seconds. It was at this point I realized the wind had picked up a bit. Riding in the peloton, it wasn't even noticeable. After catching up, I did a good job of recovering, but it was still stop and go, stop and go because I still hadn't moved up into the pack far enough.

Made a right turn, which was really slow due to the pack. Riders sprinted out of the run, but it wasn't hard to keep up. This section of the course was slightly uphill, with rollers, and the time spent above LT was really wearing on me. I could feel the legs getting heavier, and I still couldn't move up like I was wanting to.

A breakaway forms on this section, and I'm at the back of the chase group. By the time I realized the sprint, it was almost too late. Fought to get back on, and I'm realizing that I can't get the HR up into the high 170's anymore. The legs are about done with all this sprinting.

Make a right turn onto Harmon, which was really beat down with potholes and gravel. Tried to stay safe, and in the process I could feel myself drifting back. The chase group had left me. I could see they were about 100 yards ahead of me, and I spent the next 5 miles trying to get back on with #903.

Eventually we realized we were toast without more bodies. Accumulated a second rider who was part of 903's team, and we worked together for maybe the next 10 miles. In this process we replaced 903's teammate with another small rider. We three finished the race together, about a minute behind the chase group. It was interesting riding with the small guy, because he could climb so well. And this was good because this was the section with the big hills. But then we would hit the flat or a downhill and he just couldn't keep up.

Passed alot of stragglers the last 5 miles, who were part of the cat 4/5 A group. Rode in fairly hard, a bit frustrated that I had fallen off the peloton's pace but proud I had competed hard in my first road race.

Alot. Start with training. The winter has really given me a solid base to work on. But if I want to compete at the cat 4 level, I have got to do a few things that I am not accustomed to.

#1 - Recover from sprinting faster. Once I finish a sprint, I need to be ready to sprint again if the peleton initiates it.

#2 - Train like a race. This means intervals, at least twice a week. And one day of shortened race simulation. Riding in zone 2 all day long isn't going to get me where I want to go.
#3 - Play to my strengths, which means get to the front and initiate more sustained tempo efforts.

Also, I have got to be more aggressive. I can't stay passive and just let people take wheels that I want. I deserve the wheel just as much as anybody, and I've got to fight my way to the front. I can't expect to be Moses parting the Red Sea and stroll right up to the front.

Rode through the park for about 3 minutes. Found Gina and Eric so I chatted with them. Looked for food, but they only had oranges and bananas. So I had half a banana. Saw results listed, and preliminary results indicate I placed 25th. I was really amazed when I saw this, because I had no clue how many people were in front of me or behind me. I just knew there was alot both ways.

I was about 7 minutes off the leader. Looking at my pace, I was a bit frustrated. I think I could've rode this fast on my tri-bike solo with the effort I put out. But that's where my mentality off. I've got to understand that I'm on a roadie, in a peloton which I am forced to work with. And there are riders who will work to their strength in order to win.

The fact is currently my strength is the ability to sustain a long tempo effort. I need to use that to my advantage, while working harder on my ability ride anaerobically and then recover from the anaerobic effort.


See what I would do differently.


Road racing is a completely different beast than triathlon. The competition is night and day. Triathlon seems to be more about competing against yourself, competing against the clock, and being a part of a friendly environment.

In road racing, there are no friends, unless you have teammates. There is no encouragement. There is no clock. It's you against them, and they don't want you to beat them. And I like it that way, because I don't want to them to beat me.