On Sunday I experienced my first road race with men. Well, it was my second road race ever (I tried my first one in Huntsville last July). Let me tell you, those men are a bunch of pansy-ass, wimpy and puny Chicken Littles. We heard a lot of whining and crying after the girls spanked them all.

Just kidding. That was a fantasy.

However, my teammate E *did* place second in the field, which is awesome and probably made some guys feel emasculated.

The C race has the tendency to start out too quickly (as I learned yesterday) due to inexperience. That's exactly what happened. We did a blazing first ten-mile lap in which my lungs and legs burned as if they were on fire. Nice wake-up call for my third outdoor ride of the season. Especially since last weekend I was freezing in 30 degree temps, and on Sunday the high was 81. At mile 25, my water bottles were empty.

Anyhow, I hung in there for the first lap with some help from one of the really cool, super nice guys who pulled me back up to the group after I dropped off the back. After that, I thought my stomach was going to eject my lunch (note to self: don't eat two hours before the race), so I decided to give up after the first lap.

I rolled on for another five or six miles until one of my female teammates who was dropped earlier caught up with me. We shared the wind-breaking duties for the rest of the race (tho' it wasn't so much of a race with just the two of us). The route was excellent and there was little traffic to deal with, so it was nice to finish even though I didn't stay with the pack.

A few times I fought off feelings of disappointment about not staying in the race, but I remind myself that: a) this is my third road ride this season, b) this race was with crazy men leading out too fast and c) this is my second road race in my history of cycling.

Racing is a good way to get in shape, though. And I acheived a greater awareness of my strengths and weaknesses at this point in the season.

My strengths:

• Endurance - thanks to running the half marathon in February!
  
• Pulling women who weigh less than me - My team should make better use of this advantage on the flats and downhills. I am certainly not big, but I do weigh more than some of my teammates.
  
• Cranking out a fat gear for a long period of time right below lactate threshold - This is a good skill for time trialing
  
• Climbing very steep inclines - I can dust the big guys since I'm not pulling that much weight!

My weaknesses:

• Sprinting at the finish line - I don't have any experience with this
  
• Finding good shelter while riding in a pack - being on the back is a bad place
  
• Hammering up short/gradual inclines - this is where I usually get dropped

One thing I observed is that the only reason why I didn't get dropped on the first big hill is because I was at the front of the pack at the bottom. At the top of the hill, I ended up at the back of the pack. Good strategy to use next race.

I enjoyed riding with my female BBC team-mates. We have the same race kit and we look SHARP when dressed in our kits. There isn't a lot of cohesive women's team riding in Birmingham... I'm not complaining since I'm not the poster child for commitment. But it does make sense to race with the women you train with, and I enjoy riding with this group of ladies, so I'm looking forward to having a great time racing with them this year.