Carpentersville Cross

There are some race days you just want to hold onto and remember for a long time. I hope this day is one of them. The venue was so fun, the course had a little of everything and the folks that put this race together really had it down. There was music blasting thru the entire park and cowbells at every corner. Just fun. FUN!!! Everyone seemed to be in high spirits and the temperature....was a balmy 80 degrees!

Hank and me debated going to the race at all because I was just getting over yet another upper respiratory infection. Hank was sick too and had some mild symptoms of coughing and sinus gooey. We were so glad we went. It was such a gorgeous day and there are not many of these left.

The course was mostly on grass with some sharp corners and U turns, probably about 12 tricky corners total . A sand pit that was rideable but many of us ran it. A hill run up and more barricades and some Long swoopy tempo parts . My favorite part was this Mud Rut. A nasty clay-mud deep set RUT that you had to aim your bike into JUST right...9 inches deep and about 4 inches wide ...set into a sharp narrow ditch that normally would have been grass but now was dark clay. It was rather intimidating looking the first time you saw it. You dipped down, aiming your bike at the rut that brought you back up sharply. If you aim it right it was just an easy swoosh then you could power away to the sandpit, aim it wrong and it was an easy endo! There were a few crashes on that.

This was the first race that our team Verdigris had all their kits on and we ROCKED! Brian soared out and got 1st in the cat 3's.

The 40+ race had a large field of 40 men. Tim Boundy got 1st in the 40+, (that is him in the start up line looking fearlessly forward next to MetLifeGuy). Chris Lombardo was holding with the chase group . (that is him floating over the barricade in the other picture). He showed us a lesson on good team work as he never tried to bust away from the chase group at the risk of dragging the other guys up to Tim. The finish line came up and He got WHAMMED into hard by another cyclist, nearly got knocked over but he held it up like McEwen and came out for 3rd place. YAY! Wayne (on the mountain bike in the sand picture) got 6th and Hank was up with the other guys but then crashed in a corner. He got back in the race to get 8th. Hank was very happy he raced!!! We all had fun in the gorgeous weather.

Oh and I got 2nd.
My race: women's 1, 2, 3 . series number 2 race. Devon leading series. We had 6 in the field. My race started out poorly for me, I didn't clip in well at the start! GRRRR. I was in dead last (here we go again!) in the first corner and there were only 6 of us total in the race. I wasn't panicked at all BUT..I probably should have been. I would have been better off sprinting around and getting up there but I took a 'tempo' approach instead to avoid getting my heart rate up. Mistake! At least there were enough open stretches in the grass that I could finally pass but the front two gals had gotten away. I was chasing the entire race. I really don't know how I managed to pull off a 2nd place and am very happy at my luck. Debby Dust was in front of me and at first was with Devon. They were already a good 20 yards ahead. I think Debby was nursing a hangover because she had mentioned she had waaay too much fun the nite before at a wedding. Hmmm.. ha! HA!!! Wedding? Its been years since I have been to a wedding.....
Serves her right! That's what you get for having fun. Nnyaaaah!!

okokok...Deb is a classy racer with a sparring attitude. I am just sparring back. It was fun back when being her team mate because she can SPRINT and make a win happen. Consistantly. Anyway, I was hovering around her trying to pass her and she was holding a strong pace. I do not compare so well on my barricade performance and D would pass me and get ahead again every time.

I was going to just give up. I was tired. Cyclo cross is hard. ~whine! `. Every time I'd get ahead I'd lose it again in the techie stuffs. futile.

But then, I misunderstood the lap counter because I looked up and it said '1' on it. I thought it was the last lap so I just Gunned it past her in a mighty DIG. There! I passed her!

My Ex- team mate screamed at me in a hangover-ish voice to ''GO GET DEVON!!''. Devon was already ahead by 30 seconds or so. You could see her coming back at us on the switchy back parts of the course. ......and she'd ride by and sip on her water and twiddle a wave at us. Smiling.

Mockingly.

When I came around the supposedly last lap, The counter said..... '3'. I was like ????????? OH man!!! that '1' that I had read was not the last lap...it was for MINUTES TO GO to the last three laps!!!!! DOH DOH DOH DOH DOH. Suddenly everything was tunnel vision darkness and evil heart rate pounding distressful NO!!!!!!!!!!!! I had to rally up something from deep inside. My mind screamed at me. ''HOLD THIS SPOT!! DON"t STOP PEDALLING!! ..Maybe you can GET HER.....Push a little deeper.....NO I"m too tired!'' ..... force myself to hold this ...... I wanted to drop out NOW..... But the team was there. The guys were watching, cowbells were clanging. My face was red and about to explode from the hot temperatures. Debby was closing the gap that I had wrung myself inside out to get..I could not go any faster! I wanted Water and there was none to have.

I mean....Someone who makes up ideas about cyclo crossing made up the idea of not carrying water during cyclo cross races. So June no Carry Water.

I need......... water!!!!
I went from 'last lap' to 'three more to go'. I was almost to blowing up point but took a break when I could and regained a little momentum. I ran the sand pit so slow in that lap that I think I could have tipped over and just lay there till Hank could come collect me.

Yup. this is the beach section. If you looked to the right, you'd have seen the.....

Fallen Riders.

Well. The race was really light hearted. It was a fun sparring event but the next one will be even more fun.

Nice race you guys! Great day!