2009—A Year In Review

To continue my end of the near tradition, here is a recap of my best and worst list:

• Best road race course: Sibley RR—I came close to winning my first road race
• Worst road race course: Durand—I got dropped before the first turn and had to TT the entire race solo.
• Best road race moment: Being the only person in my category in a 3 person breakaway with Teresa from Flanders. AND doing a solo breaking away from the pack on the final hill during the Ken Woods RR getting 3rd place overall. Jay said I was laughing up the hill—trust me it wasn't laughter it was pure pain.
• Worst road race moment: Getting dropped during the Lakewood Road Race (Duluth Classic) on the hill twice and had to catch up with the group—took everything I had for over 2 miles both times to get back to the group.
  
• Best Crit course: Mankato and Northfield—I really started to feel good about my handling skills.
• Worst Crit course: Pinehurst (Duluth Classic)—it was pure torture the entire time.
• Best Crit moment: Mankato—I found confidence in my corning without touching the breaks
• Worst Crit moment: Northfield—just when I felt good about the course and my handling skills it started to rain on the downtown streets—amost went down three times.
  
• Best TT course: Charity TT—won my first race by a 10th of a second
• Worst TT course: St. Peter—48 degrees and raining for a 40k race. I couldn’t feel anything at the 20k mark.
• Best TT moment: When I passed a guy that went off at the Blackdog a minute before me—he was pissed that I passed him on my stock bike.
• Worst TT moment: Missing my start time at the MN State TT—I think I would have gotten a higher placing if I was on time. Lessen learned, I’m now 10-15 minutes early for my start time.
  
• Best non-racing moment: Everything about RAAM—ok that’s racing but I wasn’t on the bike. Supporting our friends during the WI Ironman—it should have been illegal on how much fun we had. Along with getting my picture taken with Kristen Armstrong and Floyd Landis.
• Worst non-racing moment: Being in the car when Jason from Surfing USA was hit during RAAM.
  
• Best REGBRAI moment: Roadside party on the first riding day and meeting up with Holly, John, Carol, Belinda and Neil during the Johnny Holms concert.
• Worst REGBRAI moment: When a girl from the Bud team touched wheels and went down at 40 mph.
  
• Best Group Ride: Tour of Timmer—not sure where we went since there were so many turns but it was some where in Excelsior.
• Best Group Ride moment: Realizing how strong Carol had gotten over the season while climbing the hills in Preston—she was able to have a full conversation the entire time while I was riding on my limit a quarter of a mile behind her and Neil.
  
• Best Solo Ride route: Candy Shop Ride
• Best Solo Ride moment: Stopping at the Minnetonka pier on the first day of Fall—it was a great day!
• Worst Solo Ride moment: Riding back home from Champlin after a relentless 40 mile headwind ride.
  
• WTF moment: While running my own half-marathon course, after the city of St. Paul cut the course in half due to extreme weather, my face mask was frozen to my neck I thought “Up until this exact moment it was important to me to finish this goal, but now I’m rethinking my sanity.”
  
  *Note: the worst course list does not reflect against the promoter, it's purely based on my crappy performance that day.
  

Total Miles: 4,021

2009 Races and Places

• April 18 - Durand (women’s open)—16th place
• April 25 - Ken Woods—3rd place
• May 02 - Marty Place—5th place
• May 06 - BlackDog #1—4th place
• May 09 - Sibley RR—2th place
• May 16 - Synergy TT—3rd place
• May 17 - Charity TT—1st place
• May 20 - BlackDog #2—1st place
• May 22 - Wrenshall Time Trial—4th place
• May 23 - South Range Road Race—3rd place
• May 24 - Lakewood Road Race—7th place
• May 25 - Pinehurst Criterium—11th place
• May 30 - East Union Circuit Race—5th place
• June 03 - BlackDog #3—2nd place
• June 06 - St. Peter TT—4th place
• June 13 - Mankato Crit—4th place
• June 17 - BlackDog #4—4th place
• July 01 - BlackDog #5—5th place
• July 04 - Northfield—6th place
• July 05 - Spam Jam—2nd place
• July 28 - Summit/Hollywood Criterium—6th place
• August 18 - Birchwood Road Race—6th place
• August 28 - BlackDog #9—3rd place
  
  * this year the fields were much larger.