Ice Breaker Time Trial

What an awesome day to go purposely self inflict massive amounts of pain to your body. Just like last week we had a lot of guy/gals out for this race. Cucina had a record amount of racers for their event and I think they did a great job organizing. My start time wasn't until 10:47 but we had to check in by 8:30 so I was there plenty early. I wasn't feeling quite as good as I did for Frostbite but I was hoping to do at least as well. I was plenty warmed up by the time I went over to the start line. My start wasn't as good as last week but I still got up to speed fairly fast. The course is on a 5 mile out and back with curvy roads and a little bit of climbing (very little). I was rolling smoothly, doing about 26mph. My hr was hovering around 170bpm. I was feeling pretty good going out. I made the turnaround and finally caught my 30 second guy. He had been setting a good pace and he happened to be a CAT 3 as well. As I passed it gave him motivation and he was right on my wheel. I could see his shadow. I'm not sure if he was drafting but I didn't care -he would have been the one to get DQ'd. After about 1K he finally got beside me and slowly passed. Just after he passed, we came to a curve and as we went around there was a huge, hay-hauling semi going about 20mpg with 5 other cars in tow. Dammit!! As we rolled up behind we both had to coast for a second. I moved right and saw two racers on the shoulder next to the cars . If I went left I would be screwed. As I was making my decision the guy with me went right and headed down the shoulder. I decided to take a chance and went left. The road straightened out and no cars were coming. I managed to stay within the yellow and I'm sure I scared the crap out of a couple of the drivers. I got around and noticed none of the other three races were there. I had made the right move. It did mess me up though. My breathing was out of sync and my hr had shot up to 185. I kept telling myself that there were only a few minutes to go. I was hurting. I kept powering and I finally saw the 1K sign. I shifted down and slightly increased my effort. It seemed like it took forever to get to the 200m sign. "Where the hell is it?!" I finally saw it, threw it down and crossed the line in 23.17. I was a little disappointed because I knew I lost a little time dealing with the truck but it was good enough for 8th place. Once again, our whole team had a good day. Now, to rest up for Mason 1...