I some how made it out of the tour of Atlanta alive (as in not crashing), and even made it to the airport on time! However my health didn't quite stay intact. Anyway, starting off where we left off; stage 3.
The third race we were entered in was another crit. This time a 4 corner crit with a slight rise up through the finish straight. Success for the team in that we all stayed upright; but that was about it. I felt ok, but not really that into it. I hung in ok, but that was about it. My attempts to move up were pretty pathetic, and thus I stayed near the back. Not really where I want to be, but eh. I did try to move up a couple of times, once I had handle bars on another riders hips and the barriers on the other side, slamming on the breaks like all the others that tried to do the same as me. Not fun. I also almost took out the official who was holding out the laps to go sign in the middle of the road. Not the best place to be I thought as served to miss him.
One good thing about this race was that I learned a lot about my Nanny Nancy (my name for my continuous glucose monitor, the freestyle navigator. See last post.). The Navigator can be set to either beep or vibrate to warn of hypo/hyperglycemia. It can also beep of vibrate to warn of expected hypo/hyperglycemia before it happens. I decided to set Nancy to vibrate for hyper and beep for hypo. When I heard Nancy beep in the race i decided to eat a gel, so that was all good. A little bit later I felt Nancy starting to vibrate??? Was I feeling this right? 15min after I had the low beep I was now high? I checked after the race to find out I had set the projected low to beep, but not the actual low. I was going low, not high. That's something I've now sorted, so won't have that problem again.
Stage 4. Lasty day. It was pretty hot today. And humid. The team decided to race in what ever grade they felt like, so we were out early for the 2/3 race. There was a fair bit of sitting round, and even as close to the race as 45min I really wasn't amped. When I got to the start line I still wasn't firing, and sopent the first half sitting near the back. The race was an hour crit on a 4 corner course which had a steep little kicker round turns 3 and 4. It wasn't long enough to break up the field, but steep enough to sting the legs. Especially if you came out of turn 3 to slow. Half way through the race I felt better and moved up the front. The break had already gone, and was hovering between 20-30 sec, but not looking like it was coming back. I didn't think I had much Chance of bridging up, but thought I'd try anyway. I had nothing to lose, and as I was at the race for training, I went off the front several times. This ended up in me blowing up and being pulled with 3 laps to go, but o well.
Now the real race begins: making our flights. As soon as the race was over there was no time to muck around. We finished at round 4, and had to get straight into packing the bike into a bag to chuck on the plane. Then it was into the van, still only half dressed and sweating profusely in the heat and humidity. We had heard that there was a 2hour line through security, and were in a frantic rush to make our flights. My flight was at 7.29, and I arrived at the line for security at about 6.15. If it were to take 2hours I was looking like spending the night in Atlanta Airport. Luckily the 2hours was an exaggeration, I took the quickest line through. I don't think that the two guys sitting either side of me would have been to happy with me, drenched to the bone in sweat.
After arriving at DIA, I booked on shuttle home. The driver didn't seem to happy to take me with the bike, as "There isn't enough room". There was plenty of room as I lifted the bike into the boot. That was on the condition that I had to help lift it out when we got to our first stop, but that was sure better than waiting another hour getting a cold in my sweat drenched clothes.
I did finally make it back home. However the flying straight while my immune system is probably suffering the stress of the race, being in a small confined area with a lot of people breathing re circulated air, and being drenched in sweat as I had no chance of cleaning myself has lead to the inevitable. I'm not feeling to well today, but hopefully a couple of days rest and I'll be back on my feet.
Next stop, Tour de Cure Nebraska. My 12th state. Should I get better it could be a lot of fun. Already done my first interview for a paper via phone. Look out Nebraska.
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