32 mile Bike road race report

Well it was an eventful day on the road. I still managed to have a good race.  I suffered in the saddle long enough to get 1st in my age group and 2nd female overall. The chip timing system had issues so I don't have my time from that. They are going to email them to all participants later today. I do have some data off of my garmin but it will not be as accurate because I start my garmin before we actually go just so i don't have to be messing with it while in the peloton. I also forgot to stop it after the race for a bit because that is also my custom. But it is better than nothing so here it is 32.84 miles in 2 hours and 2 minutes. avg pace 3.44 a mile. avg speed 16.1 mph.  avg heart rate 154 ma heart rate 168. It was a hilly course so there was 2,381 ft of climbing involved. I have a feeling my numbers were a little better than that for the reasons I mentioned above. anyway, i was happy to actually just get through the entire race because it had a rough start. The gun goes off and im just riding along down the road well placed in the peloton. I am telling myself im in a good position in the middle of the pack and I need to hang on to these boys as long as I can and try to work with some of them to increase my overall race. when someone in front of the peloton has a tire blowout. I heard the rupture so i reacted well. But basically there were just bodies and bikes flying everywhere. it was a gruesome scene. The guy on my right who also rides for upstate velo was clearly knocked unconscious, the guy on my left flipped over his handlebars down a hill face first into a rocky creek.  Another guy clearly broke his arm. Most of the people that hit the ground weren't seriously hurt but had some road rash. I was actually able to steer my way through this mess and i think it as because i didn't hit my brakes so i never got locked up. But mostly I think I was just lucky.  I don't know what kind of carnage happened behind me but for the most part i think it just really splintered the peloton as people trying to get through it and get riding again.We had gone about a half of a mile at that point so the timing was really bad. It pretty much effected the entire group of riders. Only a few were in the front of it. I was a little out of sorts from it initially. I didn't know what to do. My heart wanted to stay but my head told me to just keep riding as they people cleared needed medical attention which i couldn't give them. But I did feel pretty bad initially just riding down the road leaving this behind me. A few of the guys I know actually stayed and started clearing bikes and bottles off the road and just talking to the injured until the ambulances got on the scene. I believe most of the riders however were able to join the race after it they were just delayed time wise. I was telling myself to just keep going this is bike racing and it happens. I was questioning that decision but then I thought of how I would I feel if it were me and I would want the riders to just keep going and race. There are plenty of people that werent racing that could help me. That helped a bit as I kept riding down the road.  This whole crash totally eliminated my strategy for the rest of the race as I didn't have anyone to work with and i was basically time trialing the entire way myself with no one to draft off of. I saw maybe 5 - 7 riders the entire race after that and none of them were going at a pace I could catch onto. But it ended up being good training for me for pocono since i can't draft there anyway. The course was a challenging one with lots of hills to climb. The downhills were a little tricky and technical. Only was really treacherous as you came downhill with a sweeping right a farmer was spreading cow shit all over his fields so it was all over the road.  that wasn't much fun.  It was a 2 loop course and surprisingly i actually felt better on the second loop than the first. that was a surprise. Initially i was not looking forward to the 2 loops because sometimes not knowing what is coming up is better. I felt like i rode better on the second loop. my heart rate was higher at the beginning of the race. maybe the shock of the crash. or maybe i was just gunning it more. I was trying to go as hard as i could the entire way. I decided to go liquid with my nutrition since it was a short ride and i didn't have to run off the bike. I just took coconut water in my bottle and got through the race on that. I actually liked it because it is easier than trying to eat.  I was pretty wiped when i finished i felt like i gave it a good effort and raced hard the whole way. There were a couple more casulaties after the race. I was going to change and a guy came in and passed out. followed by a women who came in and passed out a few minutes later. I don't know if they were dehydrated or out of calories or it was leftover from the crash or what but it all was a little insane considering it was 50 degrees out during the race and actually kind of short for a bike race. i taped my knee and it held up pretty good during and after the race. My legs were sore after the race but they are good today. I still had the annoying lower leg tightness. In 2 weeks Ill be racing pocono.