3/31/02 by Becky Blice
Well, while most of you were in church on Easter, this heathen was on her way to Fairview, PA (near Erie) for the first race in the PICC Spring Training Series. It was a .7-mile course criterium with two sharp corners and two more gradual corners. There were three uphill grades similar to the RATL slight uphill after the first steep uphill. I did the "B/C" race which included both men and women categories 4 & 5. There were 16 people in all with two other women besides myself. One man didn't finish and I finished 10th overall and 1st women's which I was really happy with. I went out WAY too hard, actually leading the first lap and in second on the second lap, and then was passed by four other men who ended up lapping me twice in the main group. Live and learn! The rest of us pretty much rode alone. About half way through the race, I started to set little goals for myself like, "I'm going to try to keep my mph at 31 through this turn for the rest of this race and at 26 mph for this straight-away". This was the only thing that kept me going other than shooting for the occasional person in front of me that I lapped. It was a challenging course and I was REALLY glad I did it. Considering that it was my first race in 13 years, woo woo! Now that we will have more races in this area on the weekends, I probably won't make it back there and I'm a sorry for that. I enjoyed the people and the outdoor "facilities" behind the water tower! A man and his son were nice enough to stand guard for me while I used the woods. The other two women were really nice, too. A very enjoyable experience, but exhausting! I hope I can recupe in time for next Sunday's Covered Bridge Series!