I raced the Boulder Road Race, today. I haven't done a Road Race that was just pavement in I think, five years or so. I've done things like the Boulder Roubaix, and the Koppenburg, which are part road/ part dirt... but yeah, it's been a long time since I did a road race.

I was inspired to do it, because I originally trained with the idea of doing mostly the Mtn States Cup... all Mtn Bike XC. But I learned that the technical skills required to do those races at the level I want to do them at, requires more time and $$ than I have. Being in Boulder, I can't easily get to the Mtns to train due to the cost of gas, time, and quite frankly -- I try to avoid driving as much as possible, and ride my bike instead, when possible. So in a value based sense, I was getting tired of all the driving, as well.

Also, I consider myself a peaceful warrior of veganism... so I like having Go Vegan on my butt and riding around. Quite frankly, it's fun!!! My fitness is pretty good from all the Hill Climbing I've done this year, so I thought... what would be a better time to try a road race, again, and see how it goes!

It's kind of hard jumping into a road race with women who focus solely on road racing as a sport. I'm thinking of focusing on road racing in the summers with some short track thrown in for good measure.

The race started out pretty well. I spent most of the first one or two laps up front, before realizing that my legs were feeling a little torched from all the racing I've done, recently. I tried to sit in on the back, but kept getting near dropped, and had trouble following the attacks from the back. I know from experience that's just not the best place to be. So I rode mid pack/back for a while! Sort of like, back..... with serious intentions of not getting dropped, and moving up! I dropped off the back with a bunch of women with I think 3.5 laps to go, or somewhere around there. There were five people that kept the faster pace. The course was over seven miles with 900 ft of climbing per lap. The race was 6 laps. This seemed fine to me. I was already riding hard, and worried that I would not make it through the whole race if I went any faster. After a while, there were still about 5 girls up the road just a minute ahead of me or so, and one girl always with me, with whom I paced myself with through the race. We kept trying to catch up to them, and sometimes it seemed like it was quite probable we would. But we never quite did. On the last lap, it was evident we would be racing for 6th or 7th place. I was pretty spent, and my legs already feeling sort of numb, and not planning on going any harder no matter how much I really wanted them to. Isn't that always the way. Wanting.... to be faster... never does much good. Probably more training for distance road racing would be necessary! Will be necessary, to catch those girls! So I ended up 7th or 8th or somewhere around there. It was a Women's 1/2/3 race.

Anyways, I had fun. I love working out, and I really pushed myself, which always feels good. Plus I conquered my nervousness of road racing that had developed into something vicious over the past few years. It was fun! So, I'm up for another road race and then some in the future! The Boulder Roubaix is next weekend. It'll be similar but with dirt. I *heart* dirt. Bring on the dirt! Looking forward to that, for sure.