7th place gets a medal

At the "Al Toefield memorial race" on 7/22 I was able to place 7th out of a pretty big pack of about 40 riders. The nice thing is I got a copper colored medal tied to a red-white-and-blue ribbon. It's made of real metal, although I doubt it's actually copper.

Today, Molly came with me to the race! Yay! We drove from our apartment to the parking lot in Prospect Park and I did a terrific job of not impressing her. My friend Brandon was racing, and he had the idea that we could form a breakaway in the first lap. So I joined him knowing that he's strong but not so strong that I can't keep up with him. We were away for less about 1/2 a lap, when I broke two spokes and nearly took out the whole pack. I had no idea what happened but it felt like my rear wheel locked up for an instant -- and then I couldn't coast because there was a spoke wound up in my freewheel. Soon enough the pack swarmed around me while I was yelling Woa! Woa! Woa! as I tried to pedal through it. The whole experience was a little harrowing but harmless. Once the pack had safely passed, I pulled over and looked to see the damage, then rode into the setup area to ask about swapping wheels. There's no free lap in this race I was told, so I swapped wheels anyway and just rode off the back of the pack for a good workout.

I need to figure out how many cat 5 races I've entered so far...
at least 2 at FBF
4 in prospect park
these 6 count toward upgrading to category 4, and there's a few at the velodrome.