Since moving to Inverness I’ve been riding with the MFCC development ride on Monday nights. After a particularly fun session, endorphins at a peak, I was convinced I should enter a women’s road race that the club was organising. Entering a road race! Really exciting, really scary. Really just 5 weeks away.

I think the first thing I did was come home and draw up a training plan. A mix of riding more and doing efforts and the club APR. Luckily for most of this period the climbing wall was closed for refurbishment, so no conflict of interest on Thursday nights. Thursday night APRs were tough. Pretty much they way they went was getting dropped every time. Fun though, and yeah I could feel the benefit.

As the race approached there was lots of nerves, broken sleep, crisis of confidence and general stress. I was pretty grumpy I reckon. Then the day before my pmt broke, my hormones shifted direction and all that was left was the excitement.

Even just the support infrastructure was exciting – pinning numbers on, lead cars, motor cycle out riders, a flock of yellow jacketed marshals; like those proper races you see on the telly.

Just one lap to go right?

MFcc Women’s Road Race 2013,  originally uploaded by road cycling.

A bit of a truce was called for the first lap, a nod to the number of first timers in the race. Then once the racing started proper I got dropped on the hill. It didn’t take to long for me to find someone to work with and we stuck together for the rest of the race. Luckily for me I had the slight edge on the hills, and the finish was on a hill.

Meanwhile at the front of the race, local hero Lee Craigie crossed the line first.

I don’t think I stopped smiling the whole 50 miles. It was such fun (still riding that wave). MFCC took the organising pretty seriously and did a great job. Corners swept, pot holes filled, marshals at every juncture. Thanks so much guys.