Saturday-
Off the top of my head I thought I recalled that Faust wasn't one of my favorite tracks and as it turns out I had only raced there once in 2007 and it was miserable. I squezed in two rides after the races at Sylvan and was looking forward to getting after it again. It was chilly and raw but I got a good warmup. The track was mostly grass, which was really dry, with lots of turning and moderate climbing compared to Sylvan. It was pretty much as I recalled and not really all that exciting. I went out hard and heard Grman telling me to save some for later in the race but it was too late. I started going backwards pretty quickly and any effort felt hard and I was tentative in the corners. My Raynauds became a problem and I had lost most feeling in my outer three fingers on both hands which was more of a distraction than anything. I found a race within the race with Vito and ultimately he poached me and I finished 6th again. I took extra effort to cool down and eat to recoer for Sundays race which paid off.
Sunday-
I woke up to rain on Sunday morning and was pretty fired up. Unfortunately it stopped but it had wet the track well which was soft and tacky. My legs we're super sore but I got a good warm up in and had that good feeling. When I used to be fit the second race was always my best but I had no idea how my body would respond with little to no fitness. I coached myself not to go out too hard and play it smart.
The race started and I stayed in 2cd for the first half of the race or so but it was coming too easily. The track was perfect and I was able to rail the turns without slowing and the legs never felt fatigued. I found myself in the front and riding away pretty easily and waited for a younger rider to try to coach him to a win. I had sworn to myself that I wouldn't try to win a C race but wanted to push this rider as hard as I could. We stayed together without any real pressure for most of the race but he started to bog down with 2 to go and I started cat and mousing with him to urge him to finish strong. On the last lap he couldn't stay on my wheel and I sat up to wait for him when someone passed, who I thought we had lapped. I was urging the rider I had been with to finish strong and take the win when he told me we had just been passed. I wanted this guy to win and did everything to coach him back up to the lead rider but he said he couldn't and I set out on my own to see if I could close the now large gap. I came within 5 seconds of catching him and was amused at my rookie like mistake but seriously inspired that my legs were coming back so quickly. Sadly, I knew I was going to miss next weekend while we were in Key West and would only be able to run that week but commited to racing the day we got back.
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