I was never very athletic as a kid. My parents stressed academics (not that I worked at that very much either). But I loved to ride my bike. For my 16th birthday, I got my first real road bike, a used viscount aerospace. I also started smoking.
When I was around 24, I (mostly) quit smoking and started riding more. I watched the early Corestates races, with Armstrong winning the triple crown, and the Coors Light races down around dock street on the cobbles. I was hooked when a co-worker who had just started racing, introduced me to the sport. In 1992 I did one race, the Frankford Hospital Crit. I was spectacularly dropped. In 1993 I did a bunch more races, and in 1994 I upgraded to cat 4, doing probably 20 races. That was also when I upgraded my viscount. I got a great deal on a leftover Eddy Merckx SLX frame that I built up with Shimano 600 (Ultegra). I took 4 years off when my son was born, and started racing again in 1998.
I never really trained alot, good years I might have done 2000 miles. Family, work, life. But I had some great teachers. I regularly went to races with one of the QCW cat 2 racers, picking his brain, watching him race. On training rides, I struggled to hold his wheel and follow him.
I slowly got better, despite my lack of training and my tendency to do nothing in the off season. My last couple years as a cat 4, I started to get a reputation as a sandbagger, but I hadn't won a race yet. Finally, after saying I would upgrade when I won a race, the next race I won, a QCW race at Norristown Farm Park. Almost 10 years after my first race!
My very first cat 3 race, Cargas, I placed 4th. Took me a few more years to place in a race again.
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