Chick-fil-a/Excelerator Sports was well represented this past 2 weeks at the Tax Day Circuit Race and the Antelope Island Classic. While we did quite well as a team at Antelope, it was Heather Smith's win at Tax Day that's the real news. She's been battling a few years now to upgrade to the Cat 3 Women and she did so at tax day with an inspiring win. Check out the following report in her own words:
"We had twelve in our start group and we pretty much stayed together until we got to the base of the circuit course. Up to the circuit I felt like my legs weren’t feeling it and I would maybe finish middle of the pack. Little did I know, they just weren’t warmed up enough yet. As the group made the climb up the first lap, it started to spread out and really spread out as it got steeper. I guess I must have been fourth to the top because I remember descending and catching Kelly Dailey (Bountiful Mazda, masters), Chelsea Smith (Simply Mac) and Anna Gunderson (Idaho). Anna had quite a lead up the hill, but we caught her on the decent. Anyway, the four of us worked together really well in an echelon. Then we climbed up the hill again it was just 3 of us. The remaining three of us still worked together. The third climb was so hard and I was thinking to myself, “Why is it so much harder than the last two?” I feel like molasses riding up this hill! Then as we descended, I went to shift into the big chain ring and I was already in it! I couldn’t believe I climbed that hill in the big ring! Up the third climb, Kelly fell off the pace. We hoped she would catch up to us, but didn’t, so Anna and I worked together.
"Just before the U-turn up the last climb a bunch of men passed us and Kelly joined us, again. As we headed up the last climb I kept on Anna’s wheel. Kelly said to me, “Heather, you can do it. Just stick on her wheel.” Then we dropped Kelly. I had so much going on in my head up that last climb. When I saw Anna climb that first hill so quickly, I pegged her as the winner. I was thinking, “Second is good.” “You can let up.” “No! you can win this.” “You can do it.” “Keep going.” I felt I had a good pace going at 1 km. I didn’t know if I could or should push harder, so I kept Anna’s pace. Then as the road got steeper, I gained on Anna. At the last switch back where it levels off, I was passing her, so I shifted down and peddled faster. I pushed as hard as I could and felt like I was going to vomit. I wanted to look back to see where she was, but I thought, “Just focus on the line.” I peeked back for just a second when the line was in sight and saw that I had a really good lead on her. As the road leveled off to the finish, I let up a little and crossed the line 8 seconds before Anna. I definitely didn’t think I would win on Saturday. I was sure glad my third climb in the big ring didn’t affect my last climb and was thankful for Kelly’s words of encouragement.
"I was so excited about the win. I think my biggest takeaway is to keep pushing and don’t settle for “good enough.” I’ve done that before. I settled for fourth in the Tour del Sol RR. I probably could have pushed harder. Don’t give up on chasing down the leader. I like descending and I think that helped catching the other ladies on the downhill. Chasing her down was huge to how the race played out.
"Now I’m going to submit my upgrade this weekend and race Bear Lake as a CAT 3 (my first A race of the season, perfect timing)! Whoa! Deep breath. I’m going to get my butt kicked, but I get to race with Keri and Joan!"
