This is a long story about how we came to have a really short championship race. For years the Texas RR Championships have been held at Fort Hood. This was a brutal thirty-three mile course and I was never young enough to have to do more than one lap. The race was well run and very popular. But this year not enough sponsors came forward to fund the race and it appeared that it would go the way of others. Then three Austin organizations came forward and agreed to do it. They already put on the Oatmeal Classic, in Oatmeal, Texas. I'm not privvy to what all had to happen in a short period of time, but a few months ago I received an email announcing the championships.
My elation was short-lived in that the oldest age group category was 40,50, 60+ and they would be doing fifty-two miles. Bad enough to race against guys half my age, but the distance was too far. I put it out of my mind. Then we had the tragedy of one of our teammates being struck by a car, Because our team is scattered, we couldn't organize a memorial ride so just dedicated an individual ride to him. Several of us wrote to the race organizer to try to get older age categories included their lineup. Resources were minimal and they had very little time to make adjustments. The best they could do would be to give us a two minute head start over the young kids, 13-14 boys, and younger boys and girls categories. They also limited us to one 13-mile loop. As an homage, the categories of 70+ and 80+ were dedicated in memory of Tom Hall. That's how I ended up Saturday morning in Oatmeal, Texas.
Side note: I encouraged my friend, Craig, to enter. He is 75+ and hasn't raced in fifty years, although he is a ride leader for the weekly Trek rides. He and I pre-rode the course last Wednesday so had a pretty good feel for it. All of the hills were done in the big ring.
There were six riders in the 70+ and just me in the 80+. We introduced ourselves, it being such a small group. I think it's quite difficult to get excited about driving from all over Texas to do a 13-mile race. Next year they promise it will be more normal. At the start I quickly clipped in and jumped to third and found a wheel to draft. We had a quarter-mile slight downhill before hitting a series of inclines. I thought we were doing just fine until two guys passed us. Truthfully, I thought I had the fast guy's wheel (Mike).
I jumped ahead and tagged on to the leaders, briefly. At 150 my HR was over 95% of maximum and clearly unsustainable. My hope of it dropping a bit as I drafted didn't pan out and I had to wave goodbye to them. Not long after, Mike caught up and passed and I once again glued myself to his wheel. As it turned out, with a little back and forth, I just followed the his wheel for eleven miles. His pace was slightly less than what I would have liked, but since I wasn't racing anyone in my age group, I didn't feel the need to extend myself too much. As it was, I spent 55% of the race in zone 4 and 37% in HR zone 5, so it wasn't like I was lollygagging. Craig and Don caught up and drafted for awhile. Don moved ahead and Mike didn't have the oomph to catch his wheel and I saw no reason to. On a few short hills I jumped ahead and made Mike catch up. My reason for doing it was hopefully to wear out his legs a bit in order to give Craig a chance to out-sprint him at the finish. As it turned out, I wore myself out and he and Craig left me on one of the last climbs. And Craig didn't have enough left for the sprint finish.
The race that started before us was hit by a two minute downpour. The race after us probably did several laps in a torrential downpour. I wouldn't know, I was safely sheltered. Race stats: avg spd 18.2 mph; max spd 30.28; cadence 83/121; 141/152 heart rate. It was only a 13.1 mile race, but I have bragging rights for another year.
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