First Parkside: A 4/5 Experience

Hello all:
I guess I should start by thanking everyone on ABD that I have
met thus far, you are a great group that has been very welcoming.
Hopefully I meet more of you through upcoming group rides and races.

So I did the Parkside race Sunday. It was my first time on that
course. I was certainly surprised by the "bumps" in the road and it
took me until the last few laps to get fully comfortable with them.
I rode the Cat 4/5 race along with 87 other riders. Thanks to Paul
Z, Alex B(owden) and Ryan Cooper for the encouragement and chatting,
it helped to ease my nerves, it was nice to meet all of you.

The pace was much quicker than any Citizen race I had been in
(duh!), but I was able to adjust and hung in the top 15 for most of
the race. There was a mid-race prime that Alex took, but I was WAY
back at that point. I wisened up and scooted back up, hoping for a
strong finish. I was in the top 10 going into the last 2 laps, but
missed the bell and never actually sprinted for the finish. I heard
others complaining about the laps to go sign not being correct as
well as not hearing the bell. I will simply accept it as a "newbie
mistake." I will wait to see the results, but would guess that I
was probably somewhere in the bottom half of the top 20.

I trust that the more races I do, the better I will get and (for all
of your sakes) will get better at writing about them...

Tim