My Third Real Live Actual Race Report, and Happy Birthday to me!

Sorry, no actual race pictures this time, the pictures I were actually in all came out blurry. This one of a tree came out pretty good though.I’d fire the photographer, but she also drives the sag wagon and watches the kids while I race. Plus me and her kind of have a thing going, and I can’t really afford the fallout of a sexual harassment in the workplace lawsuit right now. She is kind of cute too. I’m not sure if I was supposed to be in this one or not-I hope I was, or maybe the photographer has a thing for cross dressing Category 4B cyclocross racers. I’d feel better if he/she were a Cat 1 or 2 at least.

So anyway, this course was pretty brutal, quite a bit more climbing and much more technical then the other two races. The timing on the climbs sucked, but in a cool sadistic sort of way I suppose. Most of them were straight out of tight turns, you would practically stop the bike through the turn, straighten out your front tire, and start slogging up the climb. Nasty stuff, 3 hours later and my legs are still screaming.

Despite getting lapped, I am really kind of happy with my performance. I pushed it a lot harder this go around. I passed a few people and kept another pack in sight. I kept on the wheels of two faster riders most of the race. I found a spot about halfway through the course where I was faster than them on a really long stretch of climbs, but with their geared bikes they could catch me just after the start/finish on the flat sections. My plan was to get around them on the last lap because I knew it would hurt like hell, and I wouldn’t have much left to hold them off for an entire lap. I was all set to make the move, I was actually prepared to push it well past my vomit suppression capabilities and then I got lapped, race over. Bummer. I placed 47th out of 55 riders.

So for my Birthday today I got to ride till I almost puked, make Son#2 laugh a whole bunch this morning, hear my Son#1 cheer me on, and pick on my wife almost all day long. You can’t beat any of that with a stick.

Northbrook is next week, and everybody is talking about the brutal hill they have lined up. I hope it rains all week, and during the race to boot, so that way we are all running up it. After that there is a race in Lansing, but I have other plans that weekend, so that leaves only one more race on the 23rd, in Woodstock.