They were taking forever to do my hair. When it was done, time was
short enough I refused to let them take one last picture. I should
have come earlier. Or not gone at all. But this was going to be a
special day and I was in a mood for braids. If the hairdressers' wants
a picture they'd just have to settle for one that doesn't involve them.
Because I ended up taking a taxi to the race.
My first race.
The judge from the mainland was calling roll as I got out of the cab.
I was being announced as a no show as I ran up with my front wheel in
my left hand and the rest of my bike in my right hand. "到了到了,
I'm here, I'm here."
Later on, at dinner, he looked me in the eye while telling the bike
shop manager that he thought the club had organized things far too
sloppily. A 3pm start time is a 3pm start time is a 3pm start time.
It is not a 3:30 start time and people who arrive at 3:05 shouldn't get
to race. He might have been answering a question Ah Zhi posed to him,
but he was speaking to me.
Cause I was the only competitor who arrived late.
There were other late arrivals but none of them were racing. Not that
I was entirely sure why I was racing. They made me do it. They
bullied me. And they made me do it. I could have begged out. But I'm
not the kind of person who begs out.
And it was only 2km.
My very first race.
My very first time trial.
4 minutes 1.57 seconds ... about 20 seconds slower than I usually do
that stretch (the racer boys have been bullying me into training) but
it was cold with a headwind.
I made it into the top two thirds.
I made it into the top ten.
I made it into the top five.
Okay, so there were only 6 women.
But being 4th place when the first three places were going nearly as
fast as the men is nothing to be ashamed of...
I got a water bottle, a saddlebag, and a half price ticket to the
Guangzhou Shimano Bikers' Festival in July. (And the cute bike shop
manager smiled at me.)
-M