Cyclocross is War

I have only done one other cyclocross race before this one.  I have interesting memories of that first race.  I remember the mud.  I remember puking mid race.  I remember it being one of the hardest, if not hardest sporting activities I have ever done.

 So going into this race I kinda had an idea of what I was getting myself into.  Thanks Aaron for blindsiding me last time!  I knew this was going to be painful.  I knew I was no where near where I needed to be fitness wise to survive.  Its such a different type of bike riding than I normally do.  While 100 miles is a long way to bike, I know I am strong enough to get through it at a moments notice, regardless of how much I have been riding.  This was going to be less than 10 miles and I knew I was in big trouble...

The race atmosphere was pretty great, no "Cross Crusade", but pretty great.  We got there a few hours early and set up camp at a picnic table right alongside the course.  We met up with Tom and a buddy of his who did the race in the am.  Tom got 14th while riding a mountain bike, he is a total freak on the bike.  Awesome.  We got some beta from him about the course and then pre road a few sections of it in between races.  I really struggled with one section that was a series of 2' moguls about 20 yards long.  This made me really concerned for the race, this was for sure a section I would be laying face down in the dirt at. 

About 20 minutes before the start of the race, I went and lined up.   Everyone around me seemed so "pro", it was scary.  Maybe I should have registered for 4B instead of 4A??

I was lined up pretty far back, knowing I had no shot in being up in the front.  When the race went off I seemed to pass a bunch of people on the outside and quickly made up quite a bit of ground.

  The first obstacle was a small hill section with a few switchbacks coming down from the top.  It was madness.  Some one crashed in front of me and then everyone started dismounting and running.  The guy next to me jammed his pedal into my back.  Lots of elbows and shoulders banging around, but I got through.

  Then there was a barricade that you had to run over and then jump a dry creek bed.

At this point in the race, I was DYING.  I looked at my watch and I was only about 4 minutes into the race.  All I could taste was blood in my mouth.  My lungs were burning.  I was most certainly drooling.  Only 26 more minutes.......great.  I surprisingly went through the mogul section with no problem, I think race speed was the key.  I just powered through, pumping my arms and rode out of the saddle the whole time.

A few more barricades and a sand section left me with a bunch of sections on grass that switch backed continuously to the end of the first lap of what would be 3 laps.



I felt like I was not really "in the mix" but not "out of the mix" either at the end of the first lap.  The rest of the race's technical sections went fine for me, but anytime I just had to ride, I could barely keep pedaling.  At the 15 minute mark, Katy yelled to me that I was about half way done.  I responded something like "might not be able to finish", although I am not sure how audible it was.

That last lap I am pretty much consisted of this:

• ride through the technical section with everything I had
• completely space out, spitting constantly looking for the blood I could taste.  Never saw anything.  just try to keep pedaling...pedal...pedal...
• repeat

I am pretty sure I got passed by about 20 - 30 people on that last lap, but I really have no idea.  I ended up finishing in front of only 5 people, something like 69th out of 75, covering about 6 MILES! 6 MILES!  HOW CAN 6 MILES BE SO HARD!

Cyclocross is War
War with the course
War with the racers
and most importantly War within yourself

I won the war with myself, as I didn't quit when that was all i could think about doing.  I lost on just about every other front, but I can't wait to do my next race!