TMBRA Bicycles Outback Blowout: Cat 1 Ladies' Race Report
Cameron Park bike trail in Waco is one of my favorites. I
read somewhere the best way to picture it is like a ski mountain,
which is easy to do since the intertwined trails are each labeled
green, blue, or black. This place actually gives the "mountain"
in Texas mountain biking a little swagger.
The race was number 5 of 6 in the fall TMBRA series. I hadn't
made it to any of the others, but decided to make the journey south
on I-35 and throw my hat in the ring on one of my favorite courses.
I went into the race in decent riding shape since I had recently
trained for the Tour de Pink in California (205 miles of road riding
in 3 days), but had only done minimal power training and wasn't sure
how my legs would hold up at sustained intensity.
There were only 3 of us in the Cat 1 19-39 group. I was
tempted to race the open category against some of the pro ladies.
They had a better turnout with 6 riders, but with the likes of series
leader Lisa Uranga, riding phenom Jessica Rawling, and the
up-and-coming star Penny Ficker (who went 1, 2, and 3 on the day), I
knew better.
From the gun in our group, Amy Parkinson was in front, I was
chasing in second, and Lisa Hartman was close behind. Several
times I could see Amy, so I kept pushing even though my legs and back
were feeling the hurt way too early in the race. I hadn't
pre-ridden the course, so on the first lap I was taking the technical
turns with caution. Nonetheless, I managed to go over my handlebars
on a tight, downhill switchback. After I remounted my unscathed
bike, I immediately noticed a couple of the pro road ladies from the
Bicycles Outback team walking through the trees and asked them if
they had captured my fall on camera, unfortunately they had not.
After the first lap of 5.8 miles, Amy was only about 30 seconds
ahead of me. Unfortunately, my pace on the second lap was slower than
the first and after 2 go arounds, the gap had doubled. Reality
and my body both told me today probably wasn't going to be my day,
but I told myself to keep chasing hard nonetheless. I knew anything
could happen on the grueling course ahead of me, and that Lisa was
probably thinking the same as she tried to close the gap behind me.
Somewhere during the third lap I knew I wasn't going to catch
Amy. My pace was slowing and my riding was getting sloppy.
This can be a bit unnerving on a technical course like Cameron where
you have to be careful to find the balance of going all out to try
and catch someone or win a race, while making sure you come home in
one piece. (I found out later that two guys left the race with
broken collar bones.)
I had a small burst of energy midway through my final lap when I
heard my husband and family through the trees cheering for me.
With the toughest uphill switchback toward the end, I mustered all my
energy into trying to make it to the finish line. Mentally, one
of the greatest feelings during a race is when you are about 100
yards from the end. A big relief comes over you and give it all
you have left to sprint home.
Due to some confusion on my part, I thought we were doing 3 laps
instead of 4, so when I crossed the line and looked for Amy to tell
her congratulations, I couldn't find her. She and Lisa were still
out on the course finishing like warriors. I made my way to the
start line to clarify how many laps we were supposed to do. Along
the way, I also decided to check the payout board to see if it was
worth it. Since they were only paying out first place and I wasn't
in contention for anything in the overall series, I decided to spend
the rest of the beautiful afternoon visiting with my family and
fellow racers. The competitor inside of me was sort of bummed to
have resigned, but the other side was thankful I got to spend the day
doing what I love.
Congratulations to Amy and Lisa, as well as the other Cat 1
champions Lucy Brown and Tanya Woody.
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