Saturday: Rain was so heavy on the drive the race that I really wondered if they would hold the event. Silly me, of course the cross race must go on. The course was slick and several sections of turns on hills were better taken off the bike. The warm up in rain went ok, but I learned a lesson about stripping off layer at the start line. 5 min to go is way too early. While I was shivering, I watched teammate Lorraine and Joy enact a little skit. Lorraine thought Joy (a new rider) had too much air in her tires and she tried to help but letting some out. Except, it all went out! Oops. With 2 min to go they were able to borrow a floor pump and get ready.
Muddy conditions were good to me. I have the strength to slog through mud. Sections that everyone has to run are even better because when no one is on the bike – poor bike handling isn't slowing me down. I had a poor start so needed to pass folks as soon as we entered straight sections of grass. Unfortunately a woman fell in front of me, right as I was getting ready to move. I couldn’t avoid hitting her body and had to stop to avoid running over her and/ or crashing. After that, the first lap was pretty much a loss and I had to focus on chasing the 2nd lap. That went ok, no major problems with bike handling as I was dismounting and running questionable sections. The 3rd time up the run-up was a very painful experience. Muscles definitely not trained for that!! You can see the look on my face in this photo.
On the last lap, I heard that I could get on the podium with just a few more passes. The two women ahead of me weren’t going fast, so it looked promising. I tried to pass one before the section of turns on the backside. We contacted and I got pushed into the tape. Good for her, bad for me, now I was stuck behind them in the turns. I passed them once out of the turns and started the last push to the podium. That didn’t last long because I caught my rear wheel on a spike when I had it on my back for running up a hill. I couldn’t get it off easily, since I needed to lift the bike over my head to get it off the spike. The girls passed me when I was struggling with the bike. A spectator pulled it off the spike so I could head in for 4th place. Too bad I didn't get a picture of that! Ahh, the drama of cross.
Sunday: After watching the elites race on Sat I realized that I would be able to ride at the back of the group even with my history of comical cross mishaps and sloppy skills. When I arrived on Sunday it became clear that the course would be a lot more challenging for me than on Sat because it was dryer. That meant that I was at a big disadvantage to people that can handle their bikes through corners at speed and the up and down turns of the sections we had run yesterday. On the positive side, the course was incredibly long so it seemed unlikely that I would be lapped.
My efforts to pre-ride the sections of turns through mud on a hill had me laughing. I wasn’t making the turns and it was a lot slower to be off the bike in those sections. I was at the back at the start, but was able to pass a few people. Once Anna Mcloon passed me back, I started having Deja vu. Last year, we saw a lot of each other in the races because we have a very similar style: start at the back, power past less fit riders, display poor skills and try not to crash. We were near each other the whole race. Our worst section seemed to be a muddy uphill turny bit. She was entering it too slowly to make it through and I was behind her. I think I ran into her twice there before crashing myself into the mud. Next time, be ready to dismount instead of running into people! I found out two things about the elite race: there are a lot more people standing around to watch you crash yourself into the mud and it can be hard to stay motivated to the finish when they shut the music off and you have a long way to go yet. Ah, well it was fun anyway.
