Race #7: Giro di Coppi

Race #7, Giro di Coppi, was held in Barnesville, Maryland on Saturday. Barnesville is about one hour from my house.

Giro di Coppi was a road race. This meant that for my category of lady racers, we were going to ride about three loops of 12.5 miles of hills.

I got to the race early with my teammate, Tina. We did a few warm-up laps, and I felt good. I've been doing a lot of training, and I am a lot stronger so, on that day, I needed to trust the training. (Yaaaaa Me!)

The whistle was blown, and I took off with the pack. Those first few hills wore me out, and I was dropped by the pack but not by much. They group took a turn, and I missed the turn. (Oh boy!) I ended up riding about four miles of hills out of the way, and I had to ride four miles of hills to get back on track and decided that I was finished. I was ok with that decision.

When I got back to the finish line, quite a few of the other ladies were on the sideline as well. I must admit that I felt relieved. I was not the only girl who did one lap and either stopped or got pulled from the race. My teammate, Tina, also made a wrong turn and gave up after the first lap. (Misery loves company sometimes.)

I hugged the other girls, we sat around and talked, and Tina and I drove home....

Even though I took a wrong turn, I felt good about the race. I burned quite a few calories and had a ball. I even laughed out loud when I realized that I had missed the turn.

My people, from this race I learned that s@#$ happens, and we move on.....

I am still training and working to get better, and I am finally enjoying this journey.

Until the next time..........