This Saturday's women's cat. 3-4 race was my first race ever and it proved to me that this is something I definately want to do more of, despite my failure to finish.

As I stood at the start/finish line I was truly shaking like a leaf and couldn't wait to get going, figuring the nerves would wear off once I got my heart rate up. No such luck; I had cotton mouth the whole time and only began to salivate again once I prematurely ended my race.

I got off to a sort of bad start, partly due to starting in a gear that was really too tall. Also due to getting just about shoved off the road by a fellow racer.

Beyond that, I spent most of my time following the pack and couldn't seem to get anything good going with the others in the back with me. We all just splintered off deciding to fend for ourselves I guess; not the smartest thing when the lead group is getting smaller and smaller in the distance.

Long story short, I pulled out once the bile started coming up into my mouth at the top of Main St.

Things I learned:

When I am racing, 95% of my brain turns off. I have a very skewed sense of time. Need to work on that; if I had stayed on, I would've only had 2 laps to go, which I could've eeked out.

I need to build upper body strength for climbs. The little climb at turn 3 would've been a lot easier with more muscle up top.

If the start is on an incline, don't try to push such a tall gear right off the bat. All that did was make me wobbly.

All in all, that was amazing and I can't wait to do it again. I'm glad I started with Downers Grove.