Track is back! - Marymoor Preseason

The first night of preseason racing at Marymoor was Friday! I was so happy! I love racing on the track!

I had butterflies because I was excited to race again and I've spent all winter thinking about it! Now it is finally here. We will be racing every Friday except rain outs until September! Woohoo!

I made myself do some all out efforts during warm up to get the feel of really going hard again. The preseason races at Marymoor are a good shakedown to get ready for the regular season (two more weeks). It's a shake down for the officials too so they can run the races smoothly.

I forgot a few things. I forgot to get properly hydrated, I forgot the folding chair that we bring to sit on, and I forgot to pay attention when the field before you is coming at full speed into the warmup circle! After I realized I was dehydrated I tried to make up for it by drinking a bunch of water but that didn't work so well when we started racing! I can tell I'm dehydrated when my contact lens starts to fall out which is a big problem if you are racing. I think I'll get that worked out for next time.

I raced in a 49x15. Although it was a smaller gear than I ended up at last year it did not feel too big.

The first race gave me a scare. We rolled off of the rail for the neutral lap and I heard a big bang and saw Michele from Wines go down right in front of me. She blew out her rear tire. I had to steer quickly uptrack to avoid hitting her. I thought we'd restart but since she got up OK they let us start as usual after the neutral lap. I felt pretty frazzled! My plan was to attack right away for the scratch race but I was in the back due to the mishap and then Christine used the same strategy and attacked. I was glad to get things going right away. I think I ended up third in that race.

We had a new race called a "wheel race" which is a handicap race. They put all of the cat 2 riders in the race and then had riders from other fields stagger around the track for a "lead". I was in the very front with three other riders. We started from standing starts all at the same time. It felt like total chaos. I was aimed at the rider in front of me and had to avoid the holder so had a slow start. Before I made it off of the apron I was already passed by riders behind going all out. I went uptrack and rode hard and watched the show. Crazy! Annette got a much better start than me and took 7th. I wouldn't mind trying that one again though.

Next was a tempo race. I took the first set of points and then rested and went for some more before the end. I don't know for sure what place I got.

The last race of the night was the usual 4x4. I was happy to rest in between the sprints. I went early for the sprints to try and foil Amara's strong sprint. I don't have the power right now to let it get close to the line. I came close to losing my lunch in the middle of that race. It is hard to do anything in training that can simulate how hard you work in a race. I didn't win but took some of the points.

I wish I knew how I did for the night but the results weren't posted when I left and they are not on the web yet either.

It was a fun night. I was happy to see the track crew again. I can't wait for the next Friday.