first race in the books

i slept just fine, had a good breakfast, did everything that i normally did before an event. got to the event with plenty of time to walk the course and cheer on our cat 4s. set up the trainer, started to warm up during the last bit of the 4s race and the w4 races. hydrated and gel-ed up i was ready to race. 5 laps to go i start moving towards the start line, only to hear, we'll be placing the ladies under neutral while the ambulance takes care of the fallen cyclist. so back to the car i go for warm clothing. with not knowing an exact amount of time, i do micro laps in a parking lot.

10 minutes go by and i start to see guys of my race on the course, well by now I'm starting to get a bit dizzy. a few laps around and they were ready to get things going.

finally its my turn to race. all i want to do is clip in. let me clip in and ill worry about gaining ground later. first lap came around and i assume i must have been last when michael announced me and "pulling up the rear jonathan from sjbc". i get back to mid-back of the pack for now, where todd is starting to get closer, i know im not moving up, maybe he's coming back to see how im doing. i ride up to him then get in front of him to bring him back up to the middle. but he tells me that its not his day, i move back to stay near the guys i know when all of a sudden that noise you dread is getting louder, the mad dash to brake. from 30 to 0 in a matter of seconds, as i roll by the start/finish line there is a pile up. this one is gonna take a while to clean up.

after 20 minutes or so we are back on to ride 7 laps. first 1/2 lap was ok then the pace quickly shot up, i was pushing 500+ watts to stay on reaching 650 and 31 mph in the saddle in the last lap, to finish 62nd/100, but upright and ready for more.

a few more months of training and by memorial day i should be back to do multiple races in a day.