Bill Reports on Record Braking Ride

Yesterday Boyd and myself attended the Lowes Motor Speedway time trial series in Charlotte, NC. This is a 10 mile time trial around the same track that cars go 200mph around. While we didn't hit these kind of speeds we did fly.

For this event you can enter categories depending on your ability or the bike you are riding. Boyd entered the cat 1 race and I entered the fixed gear category. The front stretch is slightly up hill and into the wind and the back stretch is slightly downhill with a tail wind.
I started first. Let me start by saying that I only did this because Boyd said that he thought I could break the track record for fixed gear. That's 21 min 53 sec. I also haven't been riding much because of work. I started out and right away my legs felt like they were going to fall off. There are about 500 people at this event of all different abilities. It's kinda nice because you are always catching people. After about the first lap and a half I settled down and found a good rhythm.

A couple of people who were spectating knew that I was there to try and break the record. My friend Holli is standing on the side of the track yelling my lap times to me. The only problem is that I don't know if they are good or bad. So now i'm hammering down the track talking to myself. Is that a good time or a bad time? Should I speed up or slow down? I feel like i'm going fast? How far is it all the way around? I have'nt been caught yet! I must be going good! ( This is why I don't do very many time trials ) Finally I just told myself to shut up and go all out. Well, I did. I blew up with about a mile and a half to go. Luckily I was just about to hit the tailwind section and on a fixed gear bike it's pretty easy to carry your speed.

As I came around the final turn onto pit road I was breathing like someone had kicked me in the stomach. As i crossed the line I couldn't even see straight. People are trying to get me to stop to take off my timing chip and I just rode past them like they weren't even there. At least I knew I gave it my all.

I did end up breaking the record:

Old record: 21 min 53 secNew record: 20 min 32 sec

Thankfully I didn't see Boyd the entire time I was out there. He had a really good ride with a time of 20 min 40 sec. I'm not exactly sure where this put him in the standings, I think 4th.
T
his is a really fun series. I'm really glad that Boyd talked me into it and I look forward to breaking the new record.