Where's the Flaming Geyser?

Even though last week's TT and Circuit Race was a real race and all, today's Icebreaker TT seemed to be the beginning of the race season. It could have something to do with the fact that there were 21 of us Masters 35+ Cat 4 Women (vs. 7 last week). 

There were 6 of us OOA gals racing the Masters category, plus Jen racing Cat 1. We were, in order of start times, Jean, Julie, Cindy, Karen, Debbie, and me. It was alphabetical (if there is ever a good time to have a last name that starts with W, this is it). There was only one gal who went after me. 

We planned to caravan to the race. We met at a Park & Ride near the freeway. Debbie and I rode together. Julie, Cindy, and Karen went in Karen's truck (there was almost a major catastrophe when Cindy's bike almost fell off the rack before exiting the parking lot--some hikers meeting up at the P&R saved the day by pointing it out).

We arrived and got parked. Julie had a flat front tire, so I changed that for her. Although we had plenty of time, I got on my trainer about 15 minutes before I needed to. In a 10 mile TT, a longer warmup is better, but I'd already accounted for the extra time. The sun had come out, and we were toasty warm. By the time I got to doing my real warmup, I was sweating! I still had plenty of time after 30 minutes of the real warmup, but I didn't want to be too tired for the race, so I got off, and finished getting ready.

After cheering on the rest of my teammates, it was my turn. As I pedaled down the road, I noticed I wasn't having that high heart rate, breathing heavy, start that I usually do. Yet, I was still going 23 mph. Hmmm...there could be something to warming up even longer than 30 minutes! I was feeling pretty good! The gal who had started just after me passed me on her TT bike about half-way through the leg going out. But, she didn't get far away, and at the turn around, I passed her. She didn't pass me again until near the end. Slowly, I passed Debbie, then Karen, then Cindy. Jean and Julie had started too far ahead of me to pass them.

At the 1km, another gal on a TT bike passed me. But, I was able to pass her before the finish. Yay! The gal who I had passed at the turn around, who then passed me at the end, ended up beating me by less than 2 seconds. Dang! My time was 27:24.78, and secured me 8th place. That's 30 seconds faster, and one place higher than last year. 

Results

After the finish, we decided to cool down with a ride out to Flaming Geyser State Park. I've never been out there before (even though this is my 4th year doing this TT). I was interested to see this "Flaming" geyser. We got to the end of the park. I did not see any flaming geyser. In all fairness, if there is such a thing as a flaming geyser, it's probably not right next to the parking lot. Ah well, perhaps another time I'll do more exploring.

While waiting for results, we asked a gal to take a photo of all of us awesome Masters 35+ Cat 4 Women.

Me, Jean, Julie, Karen, Debbie, and Cindy