April in New Jersey never seems to come soon enough, and this year the weather has been wonderful. Spring is always filled with new things, and this year I decided to try something totally new, racing single-speed.
Only logging a few hours at single-speeding, I entered the Running of the Dogs, a local 3-4 hour race (like 24 hour, but without 20 hours). The course was rolling with lots of short steep ups and downs. Well, on a single speed they sure felt steep to me. On top of being really cool to line up at the start with all single speed guys, it was an awesome experience that seemed to bring out the best in me. It forced me lay off the brakes and to eek all I could out of the downhills (which is NOT my strength) and to still climb with all I had left.
The last few laps were tough, as I began to tire. There was one hill that I could not climb, that was guarded by a squadron of vultures. “Could they be waiting for me” I thought, ha, ha. .... NOT! ....Soon I was passing all sorts of cramping racers. I used the Powerbar Endurance drink, and with all that mashing up hill, not a single cramp!! By that point I felt pretty good and was able to complete 6 super fun laps, which placed me as the top solo female of the day. I feel good to already have two successful races under my belt this year, as I generally do not get started racing before May.
