Reality Check

Wew...well it has been an interesting couple of days! It all started Wednesday when I really didn't know how i was even going to get to Fitchburg until about 10 minutes before we left. Fortunately Allie from Cheerwine and her team mates were extremely kind and let me hitch a ride. The drive was estimated in mapquest at 5.5 hours and it took us over 7...horrible traffic, etc. O and i found out that the Cheerwine girls could take me there but are not going back to t-town, so somehow i need to find a ride back. I then ended up finding Aimee from the Wolverine womens team and got in the dorm room with her to spend my nights. Even though Aimee is here i'm pretty much on my own because she is racing cat3 and also taking care of 2 junior boys from Canada. But it is nice to be around some local faces.

So it comes time for the Time Trail yesterday and i packed up my messenger back and hit the road for about a 15-20 min ride to the race course. This is where the reality check really comes into play. i realized that i have gone from being a "somebody" back home where i know everyone and things are easy to being a "nobody" with very few connections. I ended up going up to the Rite Aid trailer and telling the strangers there that i knew some of the guys on their team and asked if it was ok to leave my bag there. The weather was looking nasty and i went out to do a warm up because i never ended up hooking up with Aimee to get a trainer. As i was warming up the wind picked up big time and it started spitting hard rain...i headed back to the start area as it started to down pour like crazy. When i went to use my phone (to call one of my few connections to see if he could get me a trainer) it decided to not work at all...perfect! So as all these riders are under covered areas warming up i went into the hotel and tried to stretch and keep moving. This resulted in a horrible, pretty much non existent warm up. The start line brought more reality as some of the women had people holding umbrellas and there ready to take the layers of clothing, but i tried not to be intimidated. The weather calmed down and it stopped raining, leaving wet roads and a bit of a drop in temp. The starters knew the Wolverine name when i rolled to the line and announced me as "coming all the way from MI"! As i started my legs were really feeling the change in temp and the wetness, combined with a pour warm up because they felt like rocks...i thought...O man this is not good. But I pulled through and tried to remember to spin enough to not load my legs. Sarah Ullmar started 30seconds behind me and passed me toward the end and i finished up about 15 feet behind her or so. Following the TT i road back to the start line and went back to the Rite Aid trailer where i picked up my bag, wished the guys good luck and headed back to the dorms where we are staying. I tried to check the results last night but they had not been posted. This morning i was half asleep when Aimee came in to inform me that Julie from back home took 6th in the 3/4 category...then she walked back in and said i had taken 14th...i pretty much fell out of bed after i processed in information, i was not even expecting a top 20 finish. But it was true i found out as i stumbled across the hall to the guys room where they had the computer hooked up. Don't get me wrong, I would have liked to have done better, but for how i felt yesterday i was happy to be in the top 20.

It is sunny and nice this morning and I need to start getting things ready so i can take a nap, etc. in preparation for the circuit race today. The course is pretty nice other than some bad pavement and a nasty hill that i have the privilege of climbing 11 times and sprinting up for the finish...o man...hope my legs are up for this! i'm going to try and get my phone fixed today but who knows what will happen. Thanks again for all the support, i know i have people rooting for me back home!...that is enough to keep me going through anything that comes my way! I LOVE YOU ALL!