Before I begin my race report for Barlow, I want to share some important news: I am switching teams. As of Saturday, I have officially signed on with Hammer Velo. Portland Velo has been great to me, they really are like my family the last 3 years, and I hope that can continue. However, if I’m going to race road next year, I need a solid 3 team, and I’m excited to finally really race road, ie, have a team during the actual race, rather then just drinking buddies to comiserate with afterwards (which is also important). 
So, Barlow. The sun was out, the wind was out, and I was feeling ready. During my brief warm up I got my heart rate up quickly, and my legs felt 100% ready. I good number of A women were there, and I was ready to not be last.
The gun. I slowly dropped to the back as per usual, and I managed to hang on to the group for about a lap. And then my lungs were like, “sorry, but no.” It really sucked, because my legs felt great, but my lungs could not keep up. I knew that if I could just have a fast lap and catch up I would be golden. But as it was, I could barely breathe. I had no kick. Nadda. So, I spent 55 minutes berating myself, whining about how hot and dehydrated I was, how horrible I felt, how slow I was, etc etc. It sucked pretty bad. I sucked pretty bad. I pretty much gave up, and just hoped to finish, which I did. A lap down. From everyone.
The sad part is that I could see that I was moving at the same rate as everyone else, but there was just no way in hell I could kick it to catch up. I am trying to remember a few things: A) I started training later then usual for cross, in the hopes that I will peak during the last half of the Crusade and B) I haven’t gotten over the 3 race hump to get back to peak form. Hopefully I will get some sort of kick going in the next 3 weeks, although with going on another trip on Saturday, I’m a bit worried about my training. But they have gyms in LA (I checked), so I will try to spend some time there for sure.
