6.5.08 Track Recap (with a side of gloating)

Last night was fantastic.

Lost a job? IT band keeping you down? Not getting along with your husband because life is stressing you both out? (oops, didn’t mean to write that). Go to the track and hang out with some friends for a couple of hours. And get in a race or three while you’re at it. And then have a beer.

It’s amazing what an aptly timed narrowed gaze can do to take your mind off the stress, pressure, and grief that’s called ‘tough shit’. Giving yourself a couple of hours a week filled with an activity that intentionally doesn’t allow you to think about things going on 200 meters beyond your present field of vision can be all that it takes to renew your energy and positive spirits. Those positive energies and spirits are necessary to make big life changes and decisions, and sometimes our resources just get depleted.

I realize that I probably complain on this blog more than is necessary, and for that I apologize. In the grand scheme of life I have less to whine about than 95% of the world’s population.  I need to be more thankful and grateful for what I have. I remember as a 14 year old after my grandmother’s death being so upset that I hadn’t learned more from her while she was still alive. That’s a strange thing for a self-centered teenager to reconcile. My grandmother had had Alzheimers and she was a pain and a nuisance to my increasingly important teenage social life at the time. But the second she died I recognized all the time, family history, and memories that had died along with her; I hadn’t bothered to make the time to record those things and now they are lost forever. After that realization I swore to myself that I would try and appreciate things more, and I think with each successive life-changing event I feel the need deeply appreciate even more and more profoundly.

Sorry for the tangent. That has nothing and everything to do with track racing – I just happened to realize last night that I’ve spent far too many nights on the couch sobbing over misfortune in the past week and far too few out creating positive outcomes and appreciating the things I do have. Sure, I’ve been doing positive things, like sending out resumes, but I’m referring here to the things that can actually change the energy flow in your life for the better. Begrudgingly sending out yet another resume and coverletter to yet another job you have no interest in pursuing is the opposite of generating positive energy. In fact, it’s one of the most depressing things you can do.

So last night I accidentally got off the whole “woe is me” track by going out to the racing track. Aaron was in the driver’s seat and we were already running 20 minutes late, thus making the stand still traffic we encountered on I90 even more unbearable. I was stressed, Aaron was grumpy, and the tension in the care was palpable. This was all, of course, compounded by the fact that we had had to return to the house twice for objects I had forgotten: first for my race numbers and second for cash with which to pay the tolls.

The mood started to lighten when I squirted Aaron with a full waterbottle about 5 miles outside of Northbrook. It’s totally worth that musty smell in the car to see your grumpy husband crack a smile for the first time in 45 minutes. We pulled into Northbrook and did our usual mad exchange of bikes and bags as I sprinted for the check in to register before they closed. Aaron got my bike and the trainer lugged out to the infield and I started to warm up while the first men’s race started.

It was in the mid 80s with 80% humidity yesterday, so it was going to be interesting to see how everyone held up in the first warm races of the year. At least the warmth brought out the field and the spectators. The first men’s races were good, if uneventful. I was nervous, per usual, and wasn’t really paying attention to them. I was busy playing “count the women” amongst the clusterfuck of lycra and carbon.

There ended up being six Cat 4 women, and I believe seven or eight Pro1/2/3s. The race schedule for the Cat 4 women included a Cat 4 Danish, a combined field 24 lap Points race and a Cat 4 Unknown Distance race.

The first Cat 4 women’s race of the night, the Danish, was a neutral lap followed by 3 laps and then a bell lap for first place. All the remaining riders would then race around again for second place, the around again for third place, etc. I shuffled from the back of the field up to about third or second during the three opening laps and then sprinted for the win at turn three of the bell lap. I was able to hold the rest of the ladies off and take the win, which, consequently, makes the race super short! The remaining field battled it out for second, third, and fourth with GiGi (xXx), Tamara (xXx) and Robin (xXx) taking those places respectively.

The second women’s race followed relatively shortly after since it was a combined field. We had 12 or 13 women lined up along the rails for the rolling start. After a neutral lap to group-up we started into the 24 lap points race. I tried to stay in the front half of the pack for the beginning laps and almost lost the Pro/1/2/3s when they tried to break away around lap 23 (before the bell) but caught onto someone’s wheel and held on. No points for lap 22 but at least I was in the lead group. They award points for the first four women across the line on every third lap, which equals way too many wheels and way too much math!

There was some wheel rubbing going on at some point when Debbie Dust brushed up against someone right in front of me. Being a novice I pretty much freaked out, anticipating that someone was going down, and swerved to the right. I got yelled at to hold my line (or maybe she was yelling at Debbie?) which was a warranted response to my lackluster handling skills. I’ll keep working on those, I promise.

The rest of the race I held on to the Pro1/2/3 group and scored a couple points in the process. I won the prime early in the race and got to go home with a box of Mint Chocolate Gu… I’m not sure who thought that making energy gels taste like Christmas was good idea, but I’d better start liking the taste of Junior Mints sliding down my throat in 90 degree heat right quickly.

I ended up 5th overall in that race and was thrilled with that result. Having never raced in the combined field before I was pretty nervous as to whether I’d be able to grab someone’s wheel and stick to it, but I finished the race feeling strong and in the front of the pack.

The last race for the women came almost an hour later when we raced as just Cat 4s in the unknown distance race. It was late in the evening (thanks to the earlier Men’s Pro/1/2 50 lap points race) so we knew it would be short. Carl the bell ringer promised it’d be between 4 and 11 laps… and of course it was only 4. We took a neutral, they blew the whistle, and three laps later rang the bell. I was on top of the track when the bell rang and took corner one high to come down in front, risking leading out for 3/4s of the lap. I’m normally a corner 3 kind of girl, but I didn’t really see any other option. I came around to the finish line and didn’t see anyone else around and knew I’d taken it – a rare feeling to have on the track.

At the end of the night we packed up and went to get some food and and a beer or two. It was then that I realized I hadn’t thought about “what am I going to do with my life” and “how are we going to pay our rent” in the past three hours. Three hours of respite proffered unmeasurable amounts of positive energy and renewed faith in myself and in my future. It’s just funny that the respite took the form of quad-ripping sprints and lung busting breakaways instead of a massage and a glass of wine.