RSO Championship 2008

My 300m time trial. Check out that outside edge setdown even though EVERYTHING else looked weird! Photo courtesy of l3xh2k.

300m TT: 00:36.29 (previous PB was 00:39.21)

500m: 1:00.15 (previous PB was 1:00.56 at a banked track)

15k: time not available

So the long awaited racing finally happened today in some fiercely windy condition. After fretting in the last two days how I was totally not stressed (isn't that somewhat ironic), the butterflies visited my stomach for about 5 brief minutes when I arrived at the track this morning. I don't even know what happened but they were all gone by the time I got into my pre-race routine. I must have done something right to keep my nerves so well in check for this competition.

We had a very short warm up before the 300m TT and frankly, I did not have time to do any of the things I planned to do. Accel? Nope. TT start? Nope. However, knowing my own propensity to fall over in my first few TT starts, I went through the motion of balance-daylight-load-but-no-explode a number of times while I was waiting for my turn to do my time trial. When my turn came, I was calm, collect, and solid. My time was in the range of what I expect based on my normal speed on this track so I don't have much to complain. Barring comparison of my own performance to those of my clubmates, I would say I am happy with my 300TT. We'll see if I'm going to change my mind after reviewing the video that coach AH filmed. :D

The 15k was slow and painful. My legs felt like lead and I didn't even have the strength to hang on to DL every time I was lapped. This race will forever be my reminder that I need to improve my corners. Because of my weak cornering technique, I had trouble hanging on to the pack even early in the race. I'm still trying to figure out what I can learn from this race so some serious thinking are in order. All those training for mental toughness that I've done came in handy though. As painful as it was, I just kept pushing myself to put one skate in front of the other. Giving up was not an option.

The 500m was so-so. I had an awkward start when I nearly slipped in the corner. I was dropped right off the start so it was yet another solo effort for me. I was really hoping to go under one minute and I was disappointed that I could not do it. However, it was still a decent improvement from my consistent 1:03 time on this track last season.

Senior Women sprint podium. More pictures available here.

The relay was what I had been looking forward to. CP, ShH, and I practiced our exchanges all week last week and when we got onto the track, everything went like clockwork. I was the starter for my team and DL was on the line with me. She had about 25m ahead of me when we hit the exchange area but the exchange did not happen for her team. ShH quickly made up the gap and got ahead of her. Just to make sure, CP stepped on the gas pedal and our team was in the lead. After the race, I found out that they missed another exchange which later led to a DQ. Since there isn't any one skater in either team who is significantly faster than everybody else, missing any exchange is a costly mistake. Our team won with a comfortable lead. Oh, and we have our names on the record books too!!

Posing on the podium...there were many other poses but this is probably one of the less silly ones. I found it rather funny how we each wore something borrowed during the relay. CP had TS's skinsuit, ShH had LF's helmet, and I was wearing one of SaH's sock. Long story there.

Congratulations to all my friends for some good racing this weekend!