Saturday, July 4, 2009

Gheral Brownlow 10k - pre race

Friday's late afternoon ride (14 miles) on the singlespeed was tons of fun, but brutal on my legs. The GB 10k started at 6:30am and I planned to ride the CX bike 12 miles from the house to the race. That meant an early start! I arranged my clothes, food, and bike the night before to get as much sleep as possible.

5:00am - let the dog out, ate something, and hit the road. Ahh yes, the road. On a map my route looked like an easy traffic light free 12 mile ride. In reality it was 1,000ft of climbing on a rough graded highway.
6:10 - still a ways from the race so I kicked up the pace.
6:20 - shit. 6:30 start and I'm still not there
6:27 - I come screaming up the road to find a much larger race crowd than I expected and the announcer letting everyone know we are three minutes from the gun. No late start to this race.

I lock my bike to a fence, change shoes, change shorts, grab my ipod, check in, attach my race chip and number, and hit the pack of runners waiting on the trail.

6:29:30 - My bladder is going to explode. I run off the side of the trail, pee behind a bush, and run back to the trail as the gun goes off and the pack is surging forward....stay tuned for the race report!

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