PR fun

Wednesday, 9 April

Last night was the first installment of women's racing at Pacific Raceways for 2008. Last year it poured rain for the entire 30 minutes of the first night; this year it poured before we got there and the temp was all of 40 degrees, but it didn't rain on the race.

We had a great crowd of women, a lot of them really intent on racing hard. Too hard, in fact, for my legs that were still tired from Willamette. I was ready for the totally newbie beginner pace--but none of them showed up. After the women's race, I hopped in the men's races but kept getting popped in strange places. I made it up the hill in the 1-2-3 pack which was pretty odd considering the other groups dropped me on the flats. The fields were small last night; I guess not too many others like racing in cold and wet conditions either!

Given the disaster that befell my race bike on the way home from Willamette, I was racing last night on our "spare" bike, which has not been off my trainer for at least two years (it did get a new rear tire for the event). The gears were not what you'd call smooth, and the wider, deeper bars were just weird. The replacement part for the race bike is on its way, so I guess I will use Saturday's race to "road test" the unfortunate frame.

I had a hard time getting my mind around starting up the PR habit again; it's a huge time sink, and sitting in traffic is not my idea of a good time. But in spite of getting wet and cold and dropped, on the way home I had come to terms with the prospect of doing it at least every other week.