Racing Up till now

Mesa is a male dominant team of cyclists. When I began training with the boys – I was lost, so I kept my mouth shut. Bikers are a different race of people who speak a totally different language: SRAM, Campy, Mavic, Zipp and then you have words that are off of those that you’re just supposed to know like dura ace, record, red, 404s. There are about a million expressions that mean tired I’ve come to realise: bonked, wasted, toasted, tanked (Can’t we all just say tired?? - no that would be uncool). I see more guys in pink than I do women….Oh but it’s so euro to have pink… okay… First ride with joe and martin, martin says "I just put Red on my bike" and I'll tell you I looked up and down his bike, all I saw was black and white… where’s the red… okay he’s nuts. All I have to say is somebody could make a lot of money on a “Cyclist’s dictionary”. But.. after months of hardcore studying, I can actually hold a conversation with cyclists.

Racing...
Froze Toes: the first racing event of the season, and of my life! I had it on my calendar and had been waiting for it. That February morning, a blissful 27 degrees, I packed my winter bib and headed for the race. When I arrived at the starting line, I had my number upside down. After a quick change, we left for the 30 mile journey we were all embarking on. 20 miles into the race, I crashed (probably my fault), bringing down an innocent pedaller behind me who obviously did not know that this was my first race. She quickly caught up with the pack as I hurriedly tried to put the chain and rear wheel back onto my bike. I hopped back on but I couldn’t see the pack anymore. I used all my energy in that 30 minutes (much to the people around me’s disgust and my own dismay) to catch up with the breakaway pack. Not five minutes later, I crashed again (definately my fault) and by this time, I was not going to let a little crash stop me. I caught up with the pack again. Hurrah! For some reason, I won. Crazy. That’s how I earned the nickname “Kaboom” for some mishaps (crashing and the such) – thanks BR :)

However I’m proud to announce that I’ve not crashed since!

At the Great Forest Part Crit, my legs weren’t feeling too fresh because I had run the day before for the first time in a while. I was told I can’t be a “tri-geek” by my coach and that was the last time I ran…

Last month I was in the Tilles Park Crit. The beginning pace was slow and I was getting nervous because the Kaboom-esque qualities always are at there strongest when going slow in a pack so I attacked again and again. But just as I was caught, BR shot off further and further. I realized that the rest of the crew wasn’t going to catch her so I blasted after her. 8 laps later I was creeping closer and closer to her. As I came around the corner for the last lap, I kept hearing “This is it! This is it!” I sprinted around her and crossed the finish line! YAY! I sat up on my bike and soft pedaled my victory lap. As BR passed, I tried to make conversation with her to soften her hate of me, but she just kept on pedaling. “Okay?” I thought. Once a Kaboom, always a Kaboom, I guess. As I was finishing my cooldown lap, I realized we had still had one lap to go… !

Well, I’ll never make that mistake again. *Cheers to BR (with sparkling grape juice, of course)