Road Bike Racing - How early is your racing wake up bell?

It doesn't get much earlier than racing in NY City in March. Tomorrow is my first USCF race in 8+ years (the 35+ Vets race in Central Park). It goes off @ 6:30AM. I live approximately 60 miles NW of Central Park, I can get there in about 1:10 with zero traffic (which is the one big advantage of a 6:30AM Sunday start). Here's the itinerary:

3:45AM Alarm goes off. Car is pre-packed, coffee will be brewed (it's on a timer)

4:15AM I roll out in my car

5:30AM Hopefully I'm parked on Fifth Avenue just north of the Met

6:30AM Hopefully I'm on the starting line and I have successfully:

• Registered for the race (always a cluster fk the first race of March)

• Gotten a spot on one of the three toilets in the barely heated public bathroom (no doors on the stalls, Bring Your Own Toilet Paper)

• Gotten a chance to warm up for 10+ mins.

I've did it fairly often in March in the 1990's, so I sort of know the drill, which helps. But it has been a long time since I raised a USCF pedal in anger. Tomorrow I will be employing EVERY wheel sucking strategy I have ever learned in racing. My pals who will be in the race have instructions to kick me if they see me riding on the front. My goal is to finish with the field and not crash (not necessarily in that order of course). Baby steps my little weenies, baby steps.

Oh well. It's 4 laps of the 6 mile park road in the Big Apple. Coolest place I think I've ever raced. And 4x up the mighty Col du Harlem hill : ). I always loved racing there. Let's see how much they hurt my little weenie legs on that hill tomorrow.

If I survive the experience, I'll report back here. Just wondering if anyone else gets up that early to race. My wife thinks I'm utterly insane. And who can argue with that?

What the hell am I doing on BF? Good God, it's 7:08PM EST. I should be in BED.

perhaps the best part of upgrading... late race starts.

I go off at 2:30 pm tomorrow.

The worst is the Tuesday night series at Ace Speedway. I live ~90 miles away, and I did the races several times last season.

Weasel out of work at 4pm, drive 2-2.5 hours to the race.

Stop for gas/coffee/redbull along the way.

Race at 7pm-8pm.

Feed facehole with food I brought (hopefully) or if I forgot, gas station crap from 8:15pm to 8:20pm.

Back home 11pmish.

Put the bike away, get a shower, go to sleep 11:45ish

Wake up to go to work 4:30 to 5ish. That's the part that'll get ya :(

2:15 in Orlando tomorrow. 2 hour drive. With time to register, and get a good warm up, 8:30 am wake up and coffee and paper at Starbucks is easily doable.

i woke at 3:30am today all for a race that ending up being canceled due to snow storms when i got there. hopefully tomorrow will be better and crit wont be canceled as well...

Now I don't feel so bad.

My alarm is set for 5AM tomorrow. Leave by 5:30, 2.5 hr drive, 9AM race.

Next Saturday I race at 3PM and it's only a 45 minute drive, so I'm sleeping in!

Reminds me of 4s in Colorado in 1992 -- 7am start every weekend. I used to wake up at 3:30 am and eat a stack of pancakes and a chicken breast. I was clearly paranoid, but back then I had a very difficult time eating enough food. Among my Cat 1/US nat team training partners, I ate about twice as much as anyone. 6'4" 165 lbs. :eek:

At least I never bonked in a race...

Now that I'm all grown up, for that early of a start, I'd have a big bowl of cereal before I went to bed, and a Gu at the start line. Bring a Gu in the pocket, and a Clif bar -- just in case.

I like to get to the parking lot an hour before the start. Warm up for 30 minutes. 6:30 is a nuts start time.

It doesn't get much earlier than racing in NY City in March.
Hi patentcad,

I guess you'll see this after your race. I remember spring in Central Park very well -- gray and cold. :D

Did a bunch of races there back in the 1970s. I was out on Long Island so it only took me about 30 minutes to get there. I would park my car somewhere on the east side and ride into the park to register and warm up.

I still have a photo from the Daily News of the pack going up the hill during a Turkey Day race. I kept it because I could pick myself out in the pack. :)

Hope it didn't end up being too cold. It's supposed to hit 80 in SoCal on Sunday.

Pack tonight, wake up about 4:45, ummm, maybe 5:00, drive 5-10 minutes to meet teammate at 5:30, get driven to race start 2h15m away for 9:30 start (24 minutes after Pizza Man). I'm in the same race as Vinokurtov. (Well, at least in theory!)

Woke at 4am, gone by 4:45. 2 hour drive to race, register, warm up, race, and gone by 10am. Home by noon. Afternoon with the kid. Priceless.