I have an exam I should be studying for. Instead I will continue my blogging marathon over a bowl of tortellini-- my personal favorite variety of stuffed pasta.
Let's hop in the cyclo-cross time machine and go back to 12/5/09. I loaded up the car and made the drive to Greensboro, NC for a race at the Bur-Mil Park and it was good. It was muddy and gross and cold-- in the 30's. Only ten people lined up! I killed the wet stuff, rode in shorts and short sleeves, crashed carrying my spare wheels to the pits, and finished on the podium. I won some wool socks and a mini-pump. I carry that pump with me on every ride now!
It seems fitting that on the day that one upgrade point I earned in Greensboro "expired", I would earn my second ever upgrade point.
Lunch related interjection- how does a microwave choose which pieces of pasta to overcook and which to leave frozen?
I loaded up the Suzuki RENO (Really Enraging, Never Own one) and shipped down to Charleston for the last race of Charleston Bicycle Company's inaugural cyclo-cross series. The course was a good mix of pavement, grass, sand and single track complete with two back to back run ups. The only down side-it was SHORT. We were going to do a lot of laps, which would be tiring.
The race was a combined 1/2/3/4 race, but the 1/2s and the 3/4s would be scored separately. I was scared that I would try to ride with the fast group of 1/2s and end up blowing up, and that the 45 minute race (15 minutes longer than normal) would kill me.
Fortunately, 45 minutes didn't kill me but doing 10-11 laps on that short course almost did.
The first sand pit was deep, and apparently the ruts got filled in every lap. It was rideable, but you were grinding and mashing at the end. Lots of people, myself included, were getting bogged down and dismounting about halfway through. For a couple of laps part of the course tape was down, so you could ride the grass longer and carry more speed into the sand. Too bad somebody found out and fixed it.
The hills were rideable too, though apparently not for me. The people who were riding were mashing and grinding (again) at the top. I thought it was just as fast to run, but since the bottom of the first run up was a u-turn into the next one, people who rode were faster at the bottom and then coming into the next hill.
The u-turn at the bottom especially kicked my ass. I was usually still trying to get into my pedals at the bottom and going so fast that I was slipping, sliding and skidding through the turn everytime.
All in all, I felt pretty good. Lots of riding alone again since the field got pretty strung out. The leader of the 1/2 race lapped me, and I was passing a lot of slower lapped guys. The entire race, I could see one guy just a few sections in front of me and two guys a few sections behind me. A few times I could see my chasers literally a corner behind me, and ceded my position to being caught. But, those two never got me. I don't know what I did to stay away from them, but I did.
Came across the line 7th on the course-- 5th in the 3/4 race. Obviously, my best finish of the season, but I was shooting for a podium. Oh well!
I'm really excited that I felt so good for 45 minutes of racing. Makes me even more excited to go up a category... eventually. I know Charleston is a smaller pond than North Carolina, but I'm still pretty happy with myself.
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