ZOWEEE!!! Jackson Park

(I know this is long but I am excited and just typingtypingtyping)

My first official cross race. (officially) GORGEOUS day 90 degrees crystal blue skies.
...and on a course that I can only describe as FAST. Its all grass and loopy loops and barricades that you had to jump while running up some hills. I raced on my Fuji cross frame that I have thrown in anger through the air more than a few times when I was trying to do barricades with Hank. (hurt my shifters,....kids don't ever throw your bike) I had a double chain ring with a 44 and 36 front and 26-12 on the back. I was in a 44/23? most of the race.
I was on the start line and just wondering why I was there. I looked up and down the line of women there and tried to guess who was going to kick my butt today. Now. Granted. I love to go as hard as I can to the point of being an idiot on the road....and I do miss mountain biking. So...you would think this would be a good sport for me. But the women present were like the who's who of Chicagoland cyclocross.
I lined up with a tummy full of frighty bugs! There were some really good women on the line and 5 Kenda racers were there out of the 15 women signed up to go at the first Chicago Cup Cross race. Kenda, my ex team, pretty much just dominates the cross scene in the Chicago area. I felt like turning around and going home. I was barfy.
I could not fit in the front line so I lined up behind a Killjoy racer, Holly, who I knew could cross and she had won the series last year. Monique, from Kenda, was next to me and was commenting on her bike. I was trying to ignore her and act all cool and not look nervous but I glanced down at her bike anyway. It was a vicious bike. VERY nice. A Blue cross frame with pink accents. I"m a wheel gal and am all about nice wheels. Velocity rims. nice. A fast machine. Ok . breath. Next to her was Corrie, who won the state cross championship last year and just recently won the Chequamagon short and fat race. and...there was Debby Dust. My God. She wins everything and just did an amazing over the top time at the Illinois Time trial championships. I saw Deb warming up and she lobbed the barricades at full speed like it was nothing. Yeah. sure....cross might work for me. ha! It was our turn to go and the whistle sent us off.
Maybe it was just bad nerves but I clipped in late at the start. I was totally off the back in the first corner. wow great job so far. I was on the back of the pack of 15 gals racing at my first cross race. I didn't know if I should plane it out and ride or just get up there. I looked up and saw the line of women ahead of me. Debby was three million miles away.

The Jackson Course:
The whole course was pretty much on grass. You went around a baseball diamond and headed off to the first barricade. Tape marked where you had to direct your bike and the first of the wooden jumps was tough to get to. You had to turn a sharp right off the course to an almost immediate hairpin left turn where you had to jump OFF the bike to jump a barricade, run up a hill, jump another barricade then come around right again and hop back on your bike. You took it DOWN the hill and then rode to another left hairpin corner at the bottom of the hill with a nice sticker bush there to WATCH out for and go around. You ride up the slope, around a tree , then down again to another sharp corner where a sticker bush was just right where you want to ride into. I called this part of the race the 'sticker bush' part. Every time I cornered I just wanted to aim right at the sticker bushes.
It was hard for me to get some speed up till I got past the second sticker bush turn. Then it was all out ,no brakes, swishy turns and straight aways along a nice river view. You swished thru some trees and THE FASTEST barricade was there you could really practice taking that at speed. Then came some swishy corners thru the trees, then you rode up this little hill to another barricade at the top of the hill where they had you jump the barricade and run with your bike DOWN the short hill along the tape and then back UP the hill again and then JUMP on your bike, clip in and swish your way to a the finish line.

Here I was in the very back. I looked up and Debby was miles away with the rest of us barely out the start gate. long gone. So far...away..... .
I knew if I didn't do something soon I was going to be riding with a nail file just wondering when the 45 minutes was done. So I buried it. I just passed and passed and passed.. one. two. ..count them. I had to do it. Desperation was kicking in. I was breathing hard.
Half into the first lap I passed most of the field and barely held off XXX and Killjoy, hot on my heels. Now just Devon from Team Get a Grip and D.Dust was in front of me. I was coming down the hill of the last jump and was........ suddenly there was Debby! Wow... She hollered at someone that her seat post broke. ?? Mechanicals. It reminded me of a race I did a few years ago with some friends. 24 hours of Moab and on the first lap there was a man dancing on his pedals. His seat was in his back pocket but he was doing a great job racing without sitting down. If you ever been to that race you will know there are some rather technical sections. Imagine riding a cross race without a seat!

I caught onto Devon and she and I wrestled with each other the entire race. She never made a mistake. I fell flat on my face on that 'fast' barricade one time and she got away a bit. Then I caught her and barrelled past her. ONE lap to go.
I tried to hold my own and keep my pace high. Devon was RIGHT there behind me. We were over a minute ahead of the pack. Just her and me battling it out. On the last barricade where there was a hill to climb, she came around me and passed me . She is a fast runner, her remounts were much better than mine and she clips in fast as blazes. I am flailing and pushing myself purely out of guts and determination. I have no finesse on these barricades.
She got away. I gunned it and tried to catch her. There was a bit of confusing traffic with the men we were catching up to that were adding to the panic. She had the same trouble getting around some of the guys so I had this last ditch frantic hope that she would get bogged down by the guys riding it in to the finish line. I nearly had to ride into the judges table to get around a guy. GAH! That was HARD!!! SHE WON! SO CLOSE.
I will take second. I think second was a gift seeing that Debby broke her bike. Besides. I thought I'd get dead last so I'll take it. wow. lucky day.
Holly on team Killjoy came in right behind us for 3rd and JEN from XXX ((who beat me bad at the Winnfield crit)) got fourth. (messenger bikers!)
Oh....and the 40+ guys NEVER passed me and Devon!!!
:) YAY! (my only goal was to not get passed by the men's field.)
I had FUN!

40+ guys race::::::
Tim and Hank's race was tough. Hank was out practicing on the course when they lined up the men. He was late and had to line up in the very back. Hank has no concept of time . (ha) or start times. (((He nearly made me miss the Snake Alley and if I didn't just go down there out of curiosity to see if the race was getting ready I would have MISSED Snake alley altogether. I barely made the start. THey were LINED UP and ready to GO.)))
so. I always have to tell him to GO and get in line.
Ok so he was in back, same thing as me but in his case he had to pass FORTY men, not 14. Tough.
Tim was barreling the pace in front and he is FAST as blazes. He and the other guys and had a great lead . They had let the 30 plus guys go first then the 40+ guys second ( Tim and Hank were 40+) so Tim had to also start passing the back end of the 30+ guys. The front guys were just fighting it out going a ferocious pace. YOu HAVE to be up front in these races. You will never see these people again.
Hank was in the middle of the pack and some guy in front of him crashed on a barricade causing them to all go around. No one would come around Hank so he ended up being the front of his group of riders. He was getting a bit grumpy about that. He still got in the top 14 which he is really happy about. He did a great job holding his position in his first cross race.
Tim got 3rd !!!!

Brian on our team was the most painful (and exciting) to watch. He is probably the fastest of us all and was doing the cat 3's to get the points he needs to cat up to 2. The start had him in the very front with two or three other guys and he was hammering. Suddenly we saw him running with his bike to the pits. He had rolled off his tire!!!!!!!!!! He was back in the pack in no time at all and now had to pass everyone. He was back by 1 minute and a half. His wife said she never heard him use words like that before that he used in the wheel pit. ( in public) . fast wheel change. ((note: we really should get extra bikes for racers if we can. ))
Now he was in back and for the entire race we were screaming at him to keep going. He was flying. His barricades were nearly perfect and we watched him gain and gain. He did very well. We were hoping he could catch a few more riders but he placed after top ten we think. I didn't check. NEXT TIME.
His wife clocked his lap times and we all think he could have definitely podiumed. We have to wait till next week to see that. I am sure he will want REVENGE big time!!!!

Nice racing. very fun. I have to say over all that I really like the cross racing. I hope I can get my barricade jumps better. and remounting. After the lesson from today, I better work on my start so I don't get dropped at the whistle next time.
All in all it was better than I thought. FUN!