Race Anecdotes: Do something that scares you

As Brittney and I walked into the Boulder Valley Velodrome, we talked about how nervous she was to try out the track. “If you always stay in your comfort zone, you’ll never grow,” I said. She agreed. We both said it was better to be scared and do it anyway, then resign out of fear. I was nervous too. I had only tried it once before two years ago.

Staring up at the steepest part of the track gave me butterflies. It felt like we were about to defy gravity. We started with the basics:

• Clipping in
• Pedaling
• Speeding up
• Slowing down
• Stopping
• Unclipping

We all got it down fast. Cari, Susan, and the other volunteers continually encouraged everyone, reminding us that it was going to be fun. I’m sure they could tell by the way we side-eyed the Wall, we were all a little intimidated.

One woman led us on the track to play “follow the leader.” We’d move up a little on the track and back down, following the person in front of us. The next lap we’d move up a bit higher, then back down again. Three laps in and we were riding up at the blue line the whole time.

The chill vibe among the veterans was contagious. It was hard to be nervous with the support from…