So, wake up this morning and it’s raining. The choices for the day are 1) erase a sleep deficit inflicted by the past week at work, 2) doing the MDP ride or 3) grinding out 30K as fast as I can. My choice? Do the Cherry Valley 30K TT hosted by Team RVO (Rock Valley Oil).
This was my first year doing this race and I have to say that RVO did a really good job. Registration was seamless, the course was clear of traffic and well marshaled and there was even a park pavilion with restrooms (which was very important afterwards). Weather? Slight drizzle and a pretty stiff wind, but by the time I got halfway into my run it started pouring rather badly.
My race started more eventful that I had planned for due to me almost missing my start time. Needless to say I’m pulling up to staging and I see 76, 77, 79 all in line. Me? I’m 75. So I roll up and ask the official “75?” The whole line in turn yells back “GO!” Great, 30 seconds behind and I haven’t even started riding yet. Thank goodness I had a pretty good warm up!
The course was a winding stretch of blacktop near a river for 4 miles and then you took a right onto a straight shot of jet seal for 5 miles that undulated. Mentally I had broken the course down into 4 segments and at the first turn I was on time. On the out portion of the 5 mile I lost about 3 minutes due to a cross wind that I could not peg and tons of sweat rolling into my eyes. Needless to say, I lost about the same amount of time on the return trip and ultimately missed my minimum time by 2 minutes and my target time by 6 minutes.
Personally I blame the weather because my equipment was flawless (I absolutely love my stingers). Had I not been carrying around 7 pounds of water in my kit and base layer (thus the reason I was thankful for the warm pavilion restroom to change in afterwards) and not had my eyes on fire half the time I KNOW I could have done better. But oh well, one is never happy with their times right?
Up next? Single BONG 20K in WI next week. Here’s hoping for better weather.