Tallahassee

I guess it's time for me to post something about the Tallahassee race. How long has it been since it happened? A week? I haven't written until now because I've been really busy with school and training. For some reason, my professors like to assign homework on Monday and make it due on Friday, so my weeks are usually hell. I come back from a weekend of hard racing and I've got to transform myself into a five-day homework machine. This week it was Dynamics, Thermodynamics, Materials, and ProE, all due on Friday.

So, now that I've got some free time, here it goes:

The race starts out slow. I sit on the back, keeping an eye on everyone else. We complete most of the first lap. Nothing happens. Then, at the base of a hill, there's an attack on the left. It's Elizabeth (Ford), and Angela (Atomic) follows. The two girls get a little ways up the road, but I go to the front and keep them in sight. After about five minutes, I happen to look over my shoulder and see there's a 3-to-4-bike-length gap between me and the group. I attack from the front and bridge to the break quickly.

I get there and say, "we've gotta get out of sight NOW!" We rotate smooth and hard, but the group chases harder. They gain on us, but I know this is what I want. I put all my effort into my pulls and (after about fifteen miles) the distances between us grows. Julie panics and tries to bridge solo, we see her, and we go harder. We've been killing it for awhile already but my pulls are still consistent. I suppose all that training paid off. Eventually, Julie gives up and we quickly get a five-minute gap on the group.

We ride the third lap tempo. Liz jumps for first spot through the last turn and I sprint around her on the left for the win. I remember letting out some sort of victory exclimation. I can't deny I was really happy about the win. After all the irritating collegiate racing I've been doing, I really needed it.

Right now, I'm sitting at home in Orlando, taking a break from studying Thermo. We're learning about entropy generation, reversible and irreversible cycles. I can't really figure out how I'm doing in the class. I thought I was doing poorly when I got my last test back and saw I'd gotten a 13/20 on it. Come to find out, the average on that test was a 9.5. Ok, I think, I'm actually doing pretty well.

Not so fast...

Yesterday was the last day you could drop classes for the semester. I took my usual seat near the front. Dr. Sherif walks in (he's got these really thick glasses that almost touch his eyeballs) and starts class. Something seems odd. I turn around in my seat and look back at the lecture hall. The first day of class, we were fighting for seats. Today, half of them are empty. All those kids who got 5's and 6's on the exam dropped, meaning the average isn't a 9.5 anymore...

I guess all I can do is hope for the best. Getting off the computer might be a good idea too.