Armed Forces Cycling Challenge

I know I haven't posted anything for a while. I have LOTS to post, just been super busy and not super motivated. But I did want to post my results from the Armed Forces Cycling Challenge today. I rode this event for the first time last year and did okay - I was hoping to do better this year. And I did! But I did not get a gold medal. ;-(  Why? A couple of reasons:

1. They did not start the race on time. We were supposed to start at 7:00 am but that start was delayed by 15 minutes or so. I do not know why. But as the course had to be cleared by 10:00 am according to their agreement with the City of Arlington, that left me less time to complete the 9 laps. Plus, riders did not line up how they were supposed to, with the faster in front and the slower in back, so it took me a good 5 minutes to cross the starting line and then several minutes to get clear of traffic and get up to speed. So that was frustrating.

2. I did not think I was in as good shape as I was last year. However, I now also know better how to ride in an event like this, and how to ride smarter, period - how to shift, when to shift, how to be better aerodynamically.

So how did I do? Well, I complete the same number of laps as last year, but significantly faster. If I had the extra time, could I have done the 9 to get the gold medal? Maybe. I was pretty tired on lap 8!

Here are my results (Not all the numbers are correct - I'll explain after):

The average speed listed (18.85) makes no sense - it is the speed I did the last lap on, and the other laps are listed as faster. The total distance of 74.6 miles is also incorrect - 8-10K laps = 52 miles. So doing the math on my own, that comes to 19.73 mph, or 3.04 mins/mile. That seems a little fast to me. The lap times seem about what I saw as I went through each time, so maybe I did go that fast. 

There were 1,450 or so entries, 735 of which completed at least 8 laps. As you can see, I finished in 568th place, so almost top third of all entries. I was 568 out of 735 who finished 8 laps. That makes sense to me because there were some REALLY good riders in this event who go REALLY fast!

But overall, I am pleased with how I did. I've been trying to do more road workouts to get better at that, but none of my workouts have been as fast as today apparently was - which is why I am a little dubious about the numbers. I still have my 30+ year old bike, though, racing against folks with nice new bikes. I'd still like to get a new bike - maybe this year. ;-)

And lookin' forward to next year now . . .

Waiting to start.

After the race.