US 100K Classic? Hell Yes.

So last Monday (Labor Day), I did this badass race in Atlanta called the US 100K Classic. Every Laby Day there is running race called the US 10k Classic held with a big festival and whatnot, and it's the biggest 10K race in the country. A pro bike race is held in conjunction with the running race and it serves as the last NRC (National Racing Calendar) race of the year. Basically, it's a big boy race and luckily I had some connections that were in charge of the race and got me in.

Anyway, I drove up in the man-van with some other racers buddies on Sunday and then raced at the crack of down on Monday. The race went well. A field of 134 riders started and it took on 2 hours 11 minutes to finish 100K (62 miles). The course was AWESOME. Hilly. Closed roads, police escorts. It was as if Orlando closed down Colonial Drive for a race. The weather was amazing too. 65 degrees at the start was amazing after racing in the Florida summer heat for the past few months. Anyway, I played it cool for the whole race and was planned on going to try and get to the front in the last few Kilometers for a good finish. Unfortunately, we didn't really know how the race finished since we road on a lap course and came off of that to do the final 3K to the finish. I had no idea that a pretty intense left hand turn was taking us off of the course and onto the final finish straight and I had to hit the breaks way too much and was instantly out of it, bam, race was done for me. But I still managed a top 50 finish out of 134 starters in a pro race. Not too shabby I guess. Anyway, the drive home sucked. But I definitely can't wait until next Labor Day, I'm so there.

Here's a video of the downhill sprint finish. The winner hit 90K an hour.

Prioirities..

The third week of the fall semester at UCF is coming to an end and so far all I can say is holy balls. I took on a pretty big work load this semester with 15 credit hours worth of classes. All sports and fitness classes. All really awesome classes that I actually ENJOY going to, but seriously, a lot of work. I'm taking Anatomy and Physiology for Sports and dear jesus it's a lot of stuff. There are 206 bones in the human body and so far I know all of them. But it's not only bones, it is also special features (lumps, protrusions, holes ETC) of every single bone. It's pretty amazing.

It's been three weeks and I'm already exhausted. Trying to balance five classes, racing/riding full time, and a possible social life is just not happening. I've come to terms with the fact that I won't really be rocking out with friends for a while, at least until racing comes to an end in October. But I'm fine with that. Because what do I want really bad? I want to focus on school and perform well in my classes and I want to focus on my cycling. So really, it is all about priorities. I spent 3.5 months living the dream. No school, no real job. Pretty much all of my friends were traveling the world and I pretty much lived like a pro cyclist. Woke up, rode for hours, come home and rested, repeat over and over and over all summer. And now, life is a lot busier. I find myself going to bed before 10pm usually, but hey, I'm making it happen, and I'm happy about that.