There's a race in my neighborhood!!!

When I got the email last week about Murad being postponed, I was pretty bummed. It was the last race on my schedule for quite a while, and I'm going to be in the Outer Banks the weekend it'll be run. In order to salvage my Fri-Sun three day weekend, I made the executive decision to go to the family condo in Ocean City. That town's so redneck and I love it. So I'm on the beach Saturday morning, reading my book, getting gawked at by the beach rentals girl (yes, my legs are smoother than yours, what of it?), and my phone rings. Apparently just about everybody in the Men's 5 for the RFK Crit canceled, and a spot opened up for me, so I knocked the sand out of my ears and drove back to DC.

The first thing I'll say about the RFK Crit is I loved being able to ride to a race. It was awesome. I knew my body might not be in tip-top, given my Friday beach beer consumption, so I wasn't expecting a big result. The 5 race was smallish—I think 37 starters. Having ridden in the RFK parking lot a few times before, I knew that the wind might be strong enough to allow gaps to develop and/or stick. If it's sunny and still everywhere else in DC, it's windy by RFK. If it's overcast and windy everywhere else in DC, it's a damn typhoon at RFK.

Around five miles in, I decided to give it a go at creating a break—or at least string the group out enough to drop some riders. I spread it out, but I missed two great opportunities to break away from the group because of some sketchy cornering on my part. Apparently, I was going through the turns faster than my level of focus really allowed. In any case, I stayed at the front for about another mile and a half before I was ready to peel off. The guy on second wheel took my move to the side of the course as another breakaway attempt and jumped over to the gutter with me. Another half a mile later, I popped and was swarmed by Evolution guys. I tried to hang on to the back of the group and eventually dropped off. Many thanks to the unattached guy in the yellow jersey (bib 611 I think) for trying to pull me back in.

I'm glad to have pulled for a couple miles, and I can cross leading a race off my list, but I need to work on my recovery time and creating space for myself when I'm trying to break away from the field. It's a good thing my legs still have a lot of races left in them. I came back to RFK for the Pro/1/2 race in the afternoon. Those guys are fast (and maybe more importantly) mostly way older than I am. Maybe some day I'll be able to pull with the big boys. The picture is of one of the back-to-back-to-back primes in the second half of the race.

Listening to everything on Tally Hall's myspace page—saw them last week at DC9 and they put on a solid show, reading hipsternascar.com, and watching every stage of the Giro for free on universalsports.com.