The Thrill of 4th Place... The Agony of Surgery, Again

Tuesday night at Pacific Raceways was a huge night for me. I did not feel very good before the bike race, or even during the first three laps. But then, after a breakaway escaped, and we tried to pull them back in, I started to feel better. After the 2nd lap there were over 20 people in the peleton, but by the end of the 3rd lap there were only 9 of us chasing the breakaway. So you can tell that the speed was really fast, since so many people were unable to keep up. I won't go into tremendous detail, but we never caught the breakaway. However, 6 of the 9 guys in my group worked extremely hard to catch them. By the time the final lap started, there were only 7 of us, and as we went up the hill for the final time, there were only 3 of us preparing to battle it out for 3rd, 4th, and 5th places. I waited for the right moment, but missed it. I waited just a second too long and came in 4th place overall. My highest finish in a bike race! Fairly proud of myself. Those of you who compete in athletic endeavors know that there is a strange phenomenon that can happen when putting the body under stress. If you push yourself to the limit and win, or even achieve some measure of success, then you are not at all tired when the clock expires or you cross the finish line. But if you push yourself to the limit and lose, or do not do as well as you wanted, it physically feels terrible. After my 4th place finish, I felt great even though I knew I had pushed myself harder than I probably had in a long, long, time.


So one of the pieces of good news for the week was the bike race. But then some bad news: On Thursday K and I went to the dentist and I found out I needed my wisdom teeth out! I had been told by my dentist many years ago that I would need these teeth removed, but now one was compacted and one was erupting. So some good news: They were able to make an appointment for me the very next day! So here I am, back on the couch after having two of my molars pulled out of my mouth! I can't eat solid food, but I can type and post things online.