Cleave

That was weird.

tl;dr 4th out of 4 after getting a restart due to a flat.

I've been racing all season but not as much as past years due to fitness, willingness to drive, and budgetary considerations. My week leading up to this race was good. I finished the Masters Men 50+/60+ race at Manhattan Beach the previous Sunday. Last year I got dropped and pulled. Tuesday, I attacked a few times and was off the front for a couple of laps and I was never so far in the red that I couldn't get back into the field after getting caught. Also tried to help a teammate stay off the front. A few weeks ago I almost set a PR for a mid-week TT after setting a PR in June for that course.

Ended up recruiting four(!) teammates to come to this race. We were the first people at the venue and wasted enough time that I only had a reasonable warm up versus a good warm up. Did all of my warmup on the trainer which in hindsight was a tactical mistake. Still felt good enough to try to set a new PR with a stretch goal of going under 30 minutes.

I was about 3/4 of the way down the start list. Started, got up to 25 MPH, started my internal dialogue of not starting too hard, saw a slight left bend in the road, moved towards the middle of the road, then... BAM! I hit a pothole and my front tire went flat. I was about 0.4 miles from the start. I turned around and rode for a bit but didn't want to ruin the tire or the rim. Walked and started thinking, "Can I fix this and get a restart?" Watched the last starter go by. Rode a little bit more and then walked the rest of the way.

Since I didn't drive, I couldn't get into the truck. The promoter said that if I could fix the tire relatively quickly, he'd give me a restart. I saw Heathpack's husband and asked if he had a spare tube? No, Heathpack uses tubeless. Then he offered me her spare front wheel. That will work. Rode back to the start line and got a restart.

So much for my race face. Also, the wind had picked up, as Heathpack noted, so I had a big headwind for the outbound leg. Took a while for me to clear my head and focus. Figured I need a 14 minute outbound leg to set a PR. Hit the turnaround at over 16 minutes!

The headwind became the biggest tailwind I've ever had on this course. That helped my moral and let me hurt more than my head space would have allowed after such a bad outbound leg. Finished, stopped my computer and saw that my return leg was faster than my outbound leg for the first time ever on this course.

Ended up 1 min, 1 sec slower than my PR. Ended up being happy that I at least got to race rather than hanging around after flatting so early and happy that I had I good return leg. After getting home and comparing previous races there, it was my fastest return leg ever. Yes it was wind aided, but I'll take whatever moral victories that I can.