Friday night was the first night of the regular season racing. With the start of season racing came a few field changes. One was that they were limiting the women's field to category 1-3 racers. That left me out since I am a category four. I was really disappointed about not being able to race. I emailed one of the officials and asked about racing with the men's 4's field. I was intimidated to ask because the men's fours field was invitational only. So I had to ask for an invite. They thought it was a great idea so I did it!
I was really nervous about racing with a bigger field with fast riders. The last time I raced with the men was over 15 years ago and my race ended in a big pile up on the first lap which took me down. So I needed to get over the hurdle of that experience too. I didn't go back out to the track until last year.
Racing with the men turned out to be really fun and I'm glad I did it. The first race was a point-a-lap race. I only lasted a few laps before I got gapped and couldn't get back on the group but I finished the race. The next race I was ready for the surges. It was a 20-lap scratch and I stayed in the whole time! My teammate Steve helped me during the race by encouraging me to get closer on the wheel in front of me. I could hear the announcer calling out my name too. It was hard but exciting. The men's field moves fast and is quite crisp. When they all start sweeping down to the line at full speed it can be scary too.
The 4's racing was done after two races so I got to enjoy watching the other races the rest of the night. The other women all came by and congratulated me for doing the men's race. It was nice to have so much support.
I watched Mark make an awesome winning move on his 25 lap scratch. Nice job!
After the races we got ice cream to celebrate!
1 comment:
Congrats to Mark! He had such an awesome race - a perfectly timed attack and held it to the line! I sense an upgrade coming in his future....
See you tomorrow!
Jen
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