Race Report by Jen Rasmusson

(Carlisle, PA – Sunday May 23, 2010)  My 1st 40K in 2 years… How does that sound? I think it sounded awesome! After my 1st eye-opening and some what disappointed experience back into the world of  National Racing Calendar (NRC) racing at the Wilmington Grand Prix the day before I felt like I had something to prove.  My teammates had been awesome and supportive, recognizing the road back from injury can be longer than any of us want it to be, but today I had something to prove … I could still race a bike.

I’ve always felt Time Trialing would be one of my strengths if I just buckled down and did them, so this year that was my goal. The Carlisle Individual 40K TT is out on a course in beautiful rolling hill Pennsylvania.

As most of us know, an essential part of a successful Time Trial is a good warm-up. To make sure this happened I left that my house that morning at 4:30 am, to arrive by 6:30 and be ready to go by 8:30… Unfortunately, between the rain, the fog and poor navigating skills, by 8:15 I was still in my car, calling the promoter “calmly” asking him to tell me where I was when the only reference points I could give him were “I’m by some cows and an intersection of a County Rd” Perrrrfect.. no the deal warm-up.

I finally found the start-finish line (marked by the corner of a dirt road and a different feed yard, through on my kit, pulled the TT bike out of the car, rolled up to the start, apologized for my “insanity” and thanked the promoter one more time for letting me race and was off!

During my 40K I had 1 mantra – “If it wasn’t hard then everyone would do it.”… I felt surprisingly good and my body started to adjust and open-up to the effort as I focused on keeping the power steady. As I started to roll, rain drops started to fall and as if to add to the drama of the morning, as soon as I took the right turn from 3K out it started to pour! All 33K of the 40K race it was a complete downpour!

As my mantra rolled on… “If it wasn’t hard then everyone would TT” … the Kilometers started to check off, 3K, 5K, 10K, 15K, 20K… then once 25K hit it started to hurt! What had been uncomfortable just 5 minutes prior now started to become unbearable… “If it wasn’t hard, then everyone would do it.” … chanted through my mind as I felt myself trying to relax and fight to get a handle on my rapidly tiring body … 30K … the cramping was starting to sink in … “pedal, just pedal I told myself … “you know this is hard, that is why you are doing this…” 35K, 2K to go, 1K, 500M, 250M …. Finished!!!!

I rolled across the line, now allowing fatigue to set-in and relish in the satisfaction of what I had just accomplished. I felt good about my performance and although had an estimation of my time, I was looking forward the final results.

Back at registration we waited and to my astonishment I was awarded a Sub-Hour t-shirt + picture! I had raced a 59:04, in the pouring rain, with no warm-up… the fastest Women’s time not only that day, but looking back through the times, possibly ever on the course and not to mention a top 10 time overall on the course that day (excluding the Team Time Trial!)