De Fault

So, I dunno if you remember, but there was a Simpsons episode called something like "Homer in Space" where he becomes a NASA astronaut. Remember? Well, it's between him and Barnie, and Barnie stops drinking and is selected to be an astronaut over Homer, and they're celebrating with a champaigne toast. Barnie takes a drink and says "It . . . begins!" and starts chugging the champaigne and going all drunk-crazy. One of the NASA guys says, "That was non-alcoholic champaigne! Well Homer, I guess this mean's you're it by default." Homer says, "Woo hoo! De Fault! The two sweetest words in the English language!" It's pretty much hilarious.

Why do I bring this up? Well, yesterday I got 3rd in the Elite women at the NCNCA District Time Trial! Yeah, 3rd . . . out of 3. So I got to stand on the podium, by default! Woo hoo! I took full advantage of this, my first opportunity to stand on a podium with the likes of Alison Starnes (2nd) and Molly Van Houweling (1st, of course). The first, but hopefully not last time! And it wasn't as though I totally sucked out there, I am actually really happy with my ride. My goal, that I set for myself waaaaay back in November, was to complete the 40k in under 1:01. And . . . I did! I completed it in 1:00:56:90. So just barely made the cut, but good enough! Alison was a little over 2 minutes ahead of me in the 58 min. range, while Molly turned in a screaming 55:06. Sheesh. My goal for next year is to break an hour, I know I can do it! For now I'm happy with my default podium, and knowing that I put in a killer effort and have made tremendous progress from last year (last yrs. time was 1:04:32). I wanted to post my podium pic, but can't find it online, so maybe later.