Mediocre weekend

I ended up with a 15th place finish in the Master's 35+ race on Saturday and 14th in my category race on Sunday. I felt sluggish the whole weekend and having my wife and two children with me in a hotel room probably didn't help. My youngest has been battling a cough for about 2 weeks and she came down with a 102F fever on Sunday night which meant a trip to the doctor on Monday. Turns out that she has pneumonia.

Both courses this weekend didn't favor a climber and the pace was all out from the start. The race on Saturday was located in the ION Community in Mt. Pleasant, SC. Pretty flat course with cobblestone pathways across the roads for pedestrian traffic. Throw in a roundabout and a sharp 90 degree turn with a corner full of cobblestones and it makes for an interesting day of racing.

I got to the starting line after everyone had lined up so I was sitting in 38th position to start and would need a few laps just to get mid-pack. We averaged 25.7mph for the entire 43 minutes and I just couldn't get into a groove or zone.

The race on Sunday was pancake flat with sweeping corners and we averaged 26.1mph for the entire 40 minutes. Even with the official's warnings, we still had 4 wrecks during the race, one that required a stretcher.

I went solo for 1.5 laps but no one followed and I decided to get reabsorbed as I just didn't feel that I had it today. Once reabsorbed, I found myself falling to the back of the pack. With 2 to go, I started making my way up to the front could never get closer than about 20th. We rounded the last 90 degree turn towards the finish line and even though we had a long run in to the finish, being so far back made it difficult to pick my way through the field and I ended up sitting up just before the finish as there was no place for me to go.

Even though I didn't place in the top 5, I did extend my streak and 2008 goal of placing in the top 15 in every race I enter.