| Church Creek #3 |
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By: Kenneth Rowe This was the second time I did the Church Creek Time Trial. With my 50th birthday around the corner, I had recently purchased my mid-life crisis bicycle: a Trek Speed Concept 9.5 Rocket from my team sponsor’s bike shop. During me first effort at Church Creek, riding my TT bike for the third time, I overcooked the first right turn and road into the woods. I guess that time trial bikes don’t corner as well as road bikes. Even with this major mistake, I managed to come in under one hour. I came in 16th out of a field of 25 riders with a time of 59:32. Back to race day. I got to the starting area about 5 minutes before my start time. The weather was perfect: sunny and not too hot. Riders start every 30 seconds. A guy holds you up on you bike so that you can have a standing start. The start went well. I passed about 5 riders as I progressed along the course. Just when I was feeling great and had made the final right turn to enter the last section of the course, a guy from Kelley Benefits passed me. He ended up coming in 5th or 6th place. All thoughts of grandeur were erased. With less than 10K to go, I increased my efforts and dug as deep as I could without blowing up before the end. With the finish line in sight, I put the hammer down and my old ticker responded by going from the course average of 171 beats per minute to 179. I ended up achieving my goal of coming in under 59 minutes with a time of 58:48. As an unexpected bonus, I came in 9th place and earned some ranking points. This was by far the best result I have achieved in 4 years of racing. All of my hard work had finally produced a tangible result. Thanks to my current and former team members for their encouragement and support and to my coach Kenneth Lundgren from Elite Endurance Training Systems.
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