Rachel’s First Race
March 31, 2009 · Print This Article
By Rachel Wolff
Santa Cruz, California
I finished my first race yesterday at CCCX in Toro Park. It was really fun and I feel proud I finished. I was really impressed with how supportive everyone was. I really was not expecting it, and it felt really good. I got lapped and only got to finish 2 of the three laps, but I am ok with that. There was alot of climbing. I did catch another woman from our group and passed her on the climb (wow, first time I have ever passed anyone) but I fell on the down hill and never saw anyone from my field again.
I am really happy I did it, and have a few things in mind for next time. Like oh train a bit more! Being a homeschooling mother, my rides don’t quite happen as frequently as I would want them to. I also have a lot of respect for you women who race year after year. You all are fast!!
Oh and I need to make sure I start in the right gear, oops, totally spinning too fast. I need to practice going faster down hill and I totally panicked when we took off from the start, and it messed up my breathing on the climb, but I calmed myself down and recovered.
I am still high from the whole experience and really happy I accomplished a goal and finished a race. Oh, and it was great to be recognized as a Velo Bella!! People were really great saying “GO BELLA!!” It shows what a great reputation you all carry.
I am going to try to make it out to some saturday rides and get pushed by all you beautiful ladies!!!
This fabulous post was written by one of our awesome bella volunteers ~ To change this standard text, you have to enter some information about your self in the Dashboard -> Users -> Your Profile box.
Congratulations! Your post was inspiring and gives me great hope for ‘cross season, when I will race again for the first time in over 15 years. And, um, well… most of us don’t have time to ‘train”. I commute to work by bike daily (50 to 60 miles a week), haul big stuff with the cargo bike a couple of weekends a month, and sneak in crunches and stretching every couple of days when I can.
*Please* keep riding, and writing about it. Fantastic!
..::applause::..