Cherry Valley 30K TT
April 18, 2010 – Cherry Valley, IL
Masters 30+ – 1st – 43:26.00
274 watts – 25.7 MPH

As if a race can’t be stressful enough, I had to leave immediately after the Cherry Valley 30K TT today to catch a flight for work. Yep, nothing more exciting than having to fly out on Sunday for an early Monday AM meeting. When I found out that the later flights were completely booked, I was worried about making this race. Thankfully, I got confirmed (though no seat assignment) for an early afternoon flight, but getting too the airport would be tight. This wasn’t the first time that I had been in this situation. When I ran the Boston Marathon in 1996 and 1998, I had about one hour to get to the airport after my projected finish time. Now, that’s motivation for running fast…:)

The great news about the Cherry Valley TT this year was that it was sunny! Even though temps in the morning were in the upper 40s, it felt much warmer. Plus, the wind was relatively mild at 5-10 MPH out of the N. This meant we’d have a slight headwind on the return trip. Much better than the 40s, rain, and 15 MPH crosswinds from the year before.

I won’t blab on in this report like I have in others, rather I’ll leave you a map of where everything that I thought could go wrong or could do wrong happened on the course. Ironically, I ended up posting the 6th fastest time of the day and won the Masters 30+ group. A pleasant surprise. BTW, I made my flight, but knew I was in for it after winning my age group. I wound up in the next to last row by the bathrooms and a 2 year old that cried the entire flight. Oh, well, it was worth the win!