So…ehhhh…where do I start w/ this one…
Let me start w/ the first excuse here. It's my off season!!!! Though it was my “off season” and I had not been on the bike very much, I thought doing this race would be a good motivator. I also needed to retest my LTHR and what better way of doing so than actually racing. When I looked at the times, cat 4 ‘s race was at 8:30 am. Not exactly my idea of a good racing time, especially in December when it’s really freaking cold in the AM. And, since I did fairly well at the last cross race I did in September, I thought I would just upgrade to cat 3 and race the master’s 35+ at 11:30. ...good idea…
......Yeah, I am not quite sure why the hell I thought I could pull off upgrading after having done 1 cross race and being at my worse fitness, but I did. Perhaps there was some arrogance from my mtb season... which is now all gone!
The course was pretty flat but quite muddy w/ a couple of roots here there. Since I was racing my mtbike, roots were no issue. The challenges were the fast sections into the tight turns on the mud and the fairly long sections of asphalt (excuse # 2), and the beach run (I still don't get why cross likes running? What is that about?). Overall, not a mountain bike course at all (excuse #3).
We lined up on asphalt which S curved in a parking lot into a short steep muddy little climb. Since I signed up at the last possible minute, I got to line up at the back of the pack. This actually worked out, since when the whistle blew, I got dropped right away! The climb which had not been a problem during warm up, was packed and a mess. I had to dismount and start running. By the time I was back on the bike I was loosing positions rapidly. My goal had been to try to stay w/ G. on the team and ride his wheel but he was getting away. On the dirt section I was able to stay w/in reach but when entered the second longish section of asphalt, at the end he had put an even bigger gap on me. That plan was not going to work, and I knew by the end of the first lap, I needed to change my goal to not getting lapped and not DFL. During the second lap, the few stragglers in the back w/ me were pulling away, especially every time we hit pavement. There was only one guy left behind me and he kept on getting closer during those asphalt sections.
Well in the end, boy oh boy, did I get my ass handed to me. Worse of all was that I did end up getting @#%$ lapped!!!! Hell the only way it could have been worse is if I really injured myself (though then I would have had a reasonable excuse). So the two highlights of the race are: i did not bleed or brake anything (though my drivetrain might disagree), and that last guy never passed me.
I did have a great time and other than the shame and the embarrassment , it was actually fun. A couple of thoughts I took home: there is something really paradoxical about running on the beach when you are bike racing; and it is really neat to be racing in December. I need to use cross more next year to not lose as much fitness as I did in my off season. One more thought: I did get lapped by Johny B and Kevin H. who will be the guys I"ll be racing against next season in Cat 1. This race put that into perspective…
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