I feel better now

Last night I woke up at 12:30 or so and couldn't get back to sleep for another hour. By the time I got back to sleep, I had decided I was never going to race bikes again.

But I changed my mind today.

Last year at this crit, I got taken out with a few laps to go and busted up both bike and body. My goals for today were to have fun and stay in one piece. I did both. Before the race we had about 30 minutes with the course open. I felt after Thursday's race that I could corner better than anyone else in the field, so I used the 30 minutes to get the nasty corner wired, hoping I might find it useful. There was a storm drain very deep in the corner on the outside that marked what I figured was the best spot to initiate the turn. It was really deep, and somewhat uncomfortable, but the rest of the field generally apexed too early and had to brake late in the turn. If I hit the first part of the turn hard and made it all the way to the curb, I was able to exit with a lot of speed right as most everyone else was slowing down to avoid the hay bales. Any time I had a open line through the turn, I was able to make up time or open up gaps on the people behind me. I used it to initiate a couple of moves, and join a few others, but nothing stuck.

With 2 laps to go, I found myself near the front as we rode through the start/finish. I decided to roll to the front and see how it worked out. I got through the sketchy turn with about 5 meters and put my head down and went with it. No one chased, so I heard the bell with about a 30 meter gap. I survived the backstretch, but the field finally caught me just as I finished the last turn and started up the finish stretch. I rolled through with the group in 17th.

Jess took a photo of me yesterday at the end of my race and another one today. I'll post them up when we get home, but today's photo was a lot happier. I had a blast in the crit, rode my legs off, kept it upright, and proved to myself that I can enjoy riding my bike. And I clipped a pedal in a turn and rolled out of it clean with no worries, so that's always nice too.