Anyway, here's how it went down: I got there knowing I'd have some trouble. Never done a 40K time trial before, so I didn't really know how much I could put into it and still have enough left to finish. So I had my sights set ridiculously low. And I got to the start line in plenty of time. Chatted for a minute with Scott Hoover, a TT veteran and friend from the Hubbard TTs, and I mentioned that this was gonna be my first 40K TT. He said something akin to, "It's not much different than the 10-milers - same effort, just longer." Note that he'd already completed his TT for the day - the 20K ride for the Masters 50+ category. I'll punch that guy right in the nose next time I see him! :)
So okay, I took his advice to heart and kept about the same pace I do during Hubbard. Surprisingly, I was just about able to maintain that pace through the whole ride - I died a little near the end. And the worst part was when I was coming up on an intersection, cars were waiting for me at the stop signs and another car or two was driving opposite my direction. Just then with four or five cars' worth of people watching me, a Cat 3 cruises past me effortlessly. Great. Thanks for that gigantic slice of humble pie. :)
A couple miles after that, I crossed the finish line and rode straight to my truck. It was only after I sat there stretching for a minute or two that I thought to look at the time on my phone. I started at 8:54 (by the officials' time) and looked at my clock at 10:07. Estimating about 6 minutes since I crossed the finish line, I figured my time was somewhere near 1:07:00. "That'd be damn sweet if it's accurate!" I thought. Then I overheard other guys talking about their 55-minute times. Ugh. Well I was pretty much right on; 1:07:19 was my official time - two seconds faster than the last-place finisher in my category. I was 8th of 9. I'll save you the math - that's 22.2 MPH.
Then I called Kate & told her that I was finished. "Did you have fun?" she asked not 20 minutes after the worst suffering I'd endured in years, possibly ever, and certainly the most intense physical effort I've ever put forth. I laughed heartily and shouted "NO!" :)
Mostly out of frustration, last night I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations based on sketchy estimates on a website to determine about how much an aero helmet may have helped me, and I figured it could have shaved three and a half minutes off my time. That woulda been okay by me. $120+ for three minutes once a year though . . . yeesh!
3 comments:
Great job , Dan !
You went farther and did it faster than what you did in April.
Sounds like a successful year & I'll bet you will be even better next year-with or without the $120 helmet
Well hey there John! Thanks for the shout. Catch you at the hill climb tomorrow.
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