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Comments: I was still a little tense/serious for about the first hundred yards and then I discovered that when the course designer says "off-camber turn," they mean OFF-FREAKING-CAMBER! Nothing like a hairpin turn on wet, crushed grass that falls away from you. I almost ended up in a hedgerow and then spent the rest of the race giggling to myself. Lots of long straight hills on a lot of the course. I spent most of my time in my granny gear and my three largest cogs. Long, shallow, cold water puddle - um, go around that. Boards! Good thing I practice the shoe-less flying dismount. Managed to hop off my bike, picked it up to carry it over the two sets of boards, put the bike back down and jump back on. Lots of turns, bumps, berms, rocks, grass, etc. - a little bit of everything indeed. There was a short, steep hill going up to the sandpit at the end of the loop. I tried to ride up it but almost went rolling down the hill backwards from lifting my front wheel right off the ground. Then I remembered that they call these spots "run-ups" - gee, how about I try to run it. That worked much better. I walked my bike through the sand pit and jumped back on to finish my first lap. WOW! The race leader was fast. The leaders did two laps to my one lap. Second lap much like the first, but now my legs are burning and I'm going mostly on autopilot with my legs so that I could try to get a better line around some of the turns on the second lap. The whole way through the race there were spectators everywhere! Cowbells! Cheering! It was definitely cool to soak it up. I did managed to find both of the unmarked groundhog holes on my second lap. Thankfully I was only going 4 mph up the hill, so I didn't crash. Let's say it was more like a "your seat's too high" sort of moment and we'll leave it at that. I didn't even make it up any of the big hill on the second loop, so I walked that. Remounted and went around the big puddle again. As I passed one of the lap counters, I asked him "So, what's that, like 4 or 5 laps for me now?" He just laughed and shook his head :) "Keep it going big guy, the races leaders are about a lap behind you then" was his only response. Actually, much like a triathlon, the really fast people tend to cheer people on as they pass. Very cool environment. But back to the race. When I got back to the grassy run-up before the sand pit, I dismounted, shouldered my bike and jogged up it, then had to walk across the sand pit. As I cross the finish line, the lap counter was showing one lap to go. I went a little bit further, dismounted and jumped the tape to leave the course. I almost did my final lap, but I'd still have a few minutes to go before they needed to start the next race, so I pulled myself off the course to not hold things up for the rest of the day and walked over to the judges table so that they could get my number. I stuck around a few minutes to cheer everyone finishing their race and the start of the next one. OMG, never has this much discomfort been so much fun! Course layout: ![]() What would you do differently?: Not much. It was my first 'cross race and I treated it like the learning experience that it was. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot. ![]() Post race
Warm down: Ride to my car and change. What limited your ability to perform faster: Lose 80 pounds - my steel cross bike weighs enough :) Event comments: Very well run race from what I could tell. The staff and competitors were friendly, cool and very laid back. Last updated: 2006-10-31 12:00 AM
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United States
N.EM.O. Inc.
Overcast
Overall Rank = 0/23
Age Group = Men's Cat C(4)
Age Group Rank = 0/23
Pack the short bus for a day out. Since I got home from NYC two hours before I had to get up to go to the race, I didn't get much sleep and in my zombie stupor I managed to forget my racing license. Thankfully I was only a couple miles gone before I noticed and had time to turn around and get it. So now I'm 20 minutes behind schedule, not really late, but later than I want to be and at this point no amount of Trivium is going to mellow me out, so I put some Live in the CD player and rock out on the way to the race. Ate a Clif bar and drank a bottle of water on the way there (hour-ish drive). I was hella-nervous, so that was about the most I could choke down. I got to the race site and watched a little bit, got signed in and pulled out the bike to start warming up.
I get a little anxious before my races only because I know that even though they are fun, they do hurt. I'm a comfy kinda guy, so there's a little apprehension to be expected I guess. But I was actually heart racing, someone find me a shrub to puke behind nervous. The funny thing was that I wasn't psyching myself out or anything, I was just nervous. I haven't been that nervous since 4th grade field day - Kelly and I were the class favorites for the three-legged-potato sack race and a slight turn of the ankle for me at the halfway point kept us off the podium by one place. But enough of my athletic glory days flashbacks...
I rode my bike around the parking lot a few times to get the blood moving - about two miles and change. A few minutes before the start I was talking to one of the guys that had just finished his race. I figured I could ask questions and make myself less nervous. Wrong - race quote number one from the muddy guy in the red jersey "You need to watch out for groundhog holes, most of them are marked in orange spray paint, but there are a couple unmarked doosies out there." Um, gee, thanks. Needless to say I did eventually find them on loop two... He also told me that this was a great course for a first timer because it was challenging and it had a little bit of everything in it.
Eventually, the 6 classes of riders huddle up for the start - 2 Male Masters classes, Male C (or Category 4, mine), a couple of Male Junior categories and Women's Cat B. The starter gave us a 1 minute warning and all of a sudden I wasn't nervous. I was as calm as I could possibly be. I realised that I could have made a thousand excuses to bag the race today, but there I was - 60 seconds from fun, fame and fortune. Well, OK, just fun. 30 seconds to go. 10 seconds to go. The gun went off for the first group and we were off like bat outta' Meatloaf. The Women and Juniors started 2 minutes after us.