Race Repot 3/5/11

Unfortunately nothing super exciting to talk about for the race itself but a lot of other interesting things happened today. First of all after my last misadventure getting kicked off the underground I devised a new route which would require me to ride the last 7 or so miles to the race. To my surprise I stepped off of the District Line and what do I see on the other side of the platform? The central line...just looking at me and saying come on buddy hop on board. So I did and it dropped me off at Fairlop just perfectly. Who would have known!! Might even be a better journey this way, and didn't have to bother with the pesky tube workers. While I waited for the train to come I rode my bike around on the platform just to stick it to those guys who kicked me out a couple of weeks ago.
If you want to buy a sandwich and the British guy behind the counter says they have curr??? (Inaudible word) chicken, do not and I repeat do not think to yourself 'chicken....whatever that first word was probably doesn't matter, chicken is always good' and then order it. Why you ask? Because you just ordered a curried chicken sandwich. Kinda like a cross between chicken salad and a mouth full of all the spices in your pantry mixed together.

The race itself was pretty boring. Probably 40 or so guys and nothing much happened for 15 minutes or so. I rode up to the front at that point and asked the guy doing tempo and breathing like he was about to pass out, 'hey is he off the front' pointing to the loan rider 30 seconds ahead of the group. He mumbled yes, and I thought well I am already in the wind let's give it a go. Not sure how I inevitably always end up off the front solo, its a curse for sure. I cut the lead to about 10 seconds in a lap and then it just stayed the same for the next 10 or so minutes. During that time I dangled probably 20 seconds on front of the group. Finally the group got organized enough to bring me back to 10 or so seconds and I promptly pulled the plug. In retrospect probably the wrong decision, but oh well. I came back then the other guy came back and just as he did one lone rider went away never to be seen again. Everyone kinda just stared at each other for the rest of the race, and waited for the sprint. I am obviously not race fit as I had nothing in the tank after my solo, and got swamped in the finale.

As much as it pains me to say this and accept the facts, I think my tall stack of pancakes are not the best pre race food. Oh they are so good but pretty sure it can't get much worse from a nutrition standpoint. Oh well maybe they will be for recovery from now on.

As I was coming home I had a realization about why the underground is always complaining about not enough money to make upgrades, and staff stations. Normally we are packed like sardines, I and I can't help but think that they have to be make money hand over foot. Today in zone 4 I figured out why that might not be the case.

Remember a couple of weeks back when I said that the temperature determines my mood? Well the lack of spring here is really getting to me. Woke up this morning it was 34 windchill of 30. Hell I wore the same thing to race today as I did on New Year's Day. What up with that. I considered not writing this when I say that it was 30 in Tulsa with a windchill of 20, but then I saw it was going to warm up to 55 today, and I figured that Tulsa has nothing to complain about. It made it all the way up to a blistering 39 today.

Off to diner!!!