No Free Laps

waiting for some pictures......

We got up at 5 am on this briskly cool autumn day. The ground was still covered in a white layer of frost which was making my feet wet and cold as we trudged up to the registration tent . Hank and me got a map and began to help out with putting the orange flags in the ground. The course was really twisty.

The map reminded me of a crime scene investigation where the body was outlined as it had fallen after being brutally murdered. Only there were two bodies lying side by side with crooked arms and smashed in heads and intestines squishing out the sides.
((Eeewwwww okok...its just that its Halloween this week and I am trying to make it sound more spooky.))

There was one short steep hill that reminded me of an exagerrated pitchers mound that was tough to bike up but barrelled down to a wide swoooshy U-turn and the finish line. The barricades were both on the upward side of an incline so you never took them at speed. I thought they seemed higher than usual and others confirmed that they were not regulation height (40cm) but they could have also just seemed taller because they were set on the incline.
I don't know, I was having a tough time hefting my bike over them and during the race I even had step over instead of a full running jump a couple times. But it didn't matter too much since it was a universal problem for everyone. Even the very tall and graceful Devon had some trouble on the barricade sections. (She has got to be over 6 feet tall!) Everyone says that taller people have an advantage. Perhaps the very tall people should carry a 5 pound water bottle to make it more fair.... But since Devon's bike weighs 10 pounds more than mine we can call it even. :P

The rest of the course was wide open and LET IT ALL OUT IF YOU DARE fast. I knew the long sections of grassy inclines would be in my favor today if I could just get thru the barricades safely. I especially loved the sweeping corners and once the frost melted, the traction was pretty good. I was excited to race this course! The sun was out and we shed the arm warmers and knee warmers. GORGEOUS fall day.

I am still coughing a little bit and my voice is hoarse but I dont think its interfering too much with these shorter races. I am tired of coughing. ugh. It is mostly disrupting my sleep. These shorter races make me breath like a locomotor and I am sure its not helping. ha!
I hate using it as an excuse. ugh.

I was actually racing ok till I messed up a technical section. It only takes a slight mistake to give the other person an attack. My race started with 8 women in the 1,2,3 Elite field with special prizes for the cat 3's that were announced. Holly from Killjoy was there and so was Devon who has won the first two races of the series. I honestly thought this was 'my' course or at least a course I had half a chance on doing well. I aimed my bike to be first into the corners. The race started on a false flat in the grass that led up to 4 intestinal corners in a row to a downhill and then hairpin up to a barricade run up. I knew I just had to power it up to get to them first. I clipped in fast but still was third into the corner behind a super fit and skinny Kelly Stark and Devon. Devon took the corners wide and Kelly cut into me when I tried to grab the inside line. We were going terribly slow and I wanted to break free. I became more aggressive and saw Devon go wide again, I aimed at the inside and tried to power past Kelly again, she cut me off again. blocking me . I feel pretty comfortable on my bike so it didn't phase me to get cut off like that. We came up the little hill and I saw she was already losing Devon's wheel so I had to get around her NOW. We cornered left and I took the outside line with barely any room. She moved her line even further out and I was running out of room. Thoughts of hooking my handlbars on the yellow tape entered my mind as I squeezed in between her and the fencing. I pushed past her after the corner and got in front of her. I sharply turned up the hill around the "U' turn corner to the barricade. The first barricade : ran up hard, lept over clean, ran for a bit up the hill and jumped on my bike...fast clip.....then I was ON Devon's wheel. It was just me and Devon shooting down the first straight away. We buried it almost side by side and swooped down onto some asphalt, I passed her after the hairpin corner and pushed it hard to try to gap her but only led her back up the grassy lumpy energy sapping hill about 700 yards to a chicane and barricade.

We were already now about 15 seconds up on the competition and hauling it hard to the next barricade. She passed me on the barricade and led me thru the next set of corners and thru the trees to the back section. We were cutting the corners fast in the back and soon were done and heading back out of the trees . Speed, faster, pushing each other. She was in front now and on the second asphalt leg, surprising me with her sudden burst of speed. She was flying! I stayed hot on her tail and as we came up to the 'pitchers' mound hill , I passed her and buried it down the sweeping corner to the S/F line. I kept the pace high up the false flat and tried to hold a high speed in the corners. I got a little up on her but she closed the gap fast. We jumped the next barricade together. This time she took over the lead and I waited a bit behind her. She held a fast pace. After the uphill chicane, we made the barricade together but she messed up her remount and missed clipping in . I heard the guys go "ATTACK NOW!!". So I attacked, up the rest of the hill and into the corners. I put a hard pace on and kept the tiniest gap. But I did not have it in me today to attack full force. Back into the trees.... Devon had recovered fast and by the time I hit the back section, she was closing up the gap.

We started into our third lap. Or was it fourth now? 16 minutes in. I tried to hold the lead but she was soon back on my wheel again. I slowed up a bit and she came around me and then I was resting on her wheel. It was not so easy to just 'sit on'. She was not letting up her pace and not holding a steady rate of speed. I had to keep paying attention. Her speed would fluctuate, and instead of a strong steady tempo, she would occassionally accelerate spontaneously and put a gap on me. Cute trick!!! Painful too!

THEN it happened. Next set of barricades, just for a flash of a second, I lost my focus. She had gotten a bit ahead of me, I was just off her draft. I got to the barricade in a bit of a fluster. I looked up and saw she messed up her remount a tad, I knew I had to do it faster so I could catch her. I pushed my bike too hard, too fast up the hill and missed my saddle. My leg landed on my wheel, I was tangled up in my bike and had to relift my leg and run the rest of the way. NO!!!! ugh~ that was going to be a nice bruise! I could see her going down the hill already and into the 'bury it' section. I got on my bike and put the HAMMER on it. It was a sizeable gap now. I had to close it up. I held it steady and tried to close the gap but she was buried. She knew this was IT.
The guys told me to hold it steady but I yelled " I dont want to hold it steady!!!" grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I wanted to CATCH HER!! She held her gap for the rest of the lap. I had to go hard where I knew she was going hard and I had to go harder still where I knew she would let up. By the next lap I was closing it in the corners and really took the corners faster than I ever had before. She was RIGHT THERE in front of me and I was close to being back in her draft just in time for the 'bury it ' windy section. I just had to make it down that hill....SLIP!.... I went a bit too fast and angled it too much in the corner and felt my wheel slide. I had to put my foot down, nothing big but it cost me more seconds. Now the gap widened and I needed to get my pace up again. KEEP the head on straight and ride smart. .

I used my arms and everything I had to push the pedals just a bit harder. But she would see me coming and kick it wide open giving me some solid punches to counter. We were fighting, she was desperate to hold her spot and I was pulling everything out to close the gap. The only rest I could take was right before the corners but even then I'd come out of the corner barely in control and get out of my saddle to regain the lost speed. I could see no weakness in her.
I kept hearing that song in my head. "He's going the distance, He's going for speed" ...((which is better than last week when I had 'what- would- you do -for- a- Klondike bar?" in my head the whole friggin' race)). ugh. ok.. tangent..sorry..
With two laps to go I felt a bit of the mental demon telling me to give up. I was spent, exhausted, coughing (for sympathy) , feeling a bit dissappointed. I let up a bit to rest. But after the barricade I saw her only just within reach, so I felt it rekindle and I dug deep and tried one more time to at least close the gap down a bit. You can't give up, you never know what can happen. She might spill or hit her head on a branch or catch a mussette with her handle bars or roll a tire..... But no. She did a perfect race. Devon won yet again.
It was a good fight. We never let up and that made for a good race and a great competition.

Its amazing to me that the simplest thing can mess up your focus. Hank calls it 'factor X'. He says no one knows much about it but its not anything you can buy, sell or find in a bottle. It comes from inside you. It can destroy your focus when you get flustered or desperate or it can give you the 'Eye of the Tiger' , the winning edge. (Lombardo has it!!)
You can even win races you are not 'supposed' to win if you have ...the X factor. Grrrr.

Themen's races were TOTALLY exciting. Team Verdigris .

Jason came out to watch , he is feeling better. The weird virus he had gotten checked out is now leaving him as mysteriously as it had happened. He said it had caused him to lose feeling in the muscles of his hands. I hope it was just a pinched nerve in his back or something like that. We were happy to see him and hope he is better and out racing again on the bike soon.

FORTY PLUS MEN"S
Chris Lombardo, Tim Boundy , Wayne Simon and Hank as well as some other men we train and have done some Bandit races with were lined up to do the 40+. Tim's family was there watching and I stood next to his wife, Kim, (who is probably one of the few women out there with all her fingernails intact) and who is super fit after having two little girls . The little Boundy girls were there screaming 'GO daddy!!' and raising up a ruckus . Lombardo's own 11 year old son would be racing with the juniors soon after the 40+ were done. FUN! All kids love to watch cross races. :)

As the 40+ race began. 30 guys took off to hit the snakey corners. ALmost immediately the race split off with ALL FOUR of team Verdigris in the front. YAY!! We were so excited! A green train had formed almost immediately. A Turin rider and a 'white jersey guy' ( I will get names) were in the split. They stayed in a break for a few laps but Lombardo and Boundy attacked till Boundy got off the front and got away. Then it was just Lombardo and 'white jersey guy'. Hank was holding it steady and Wayne was hammering hard on his mountain bike. No one was near enough at that point for them to worry. They were so far off the front at that time he had no fear of getting caught from behind and only had to hold a steady pace. Hank was alone in the middle and holding. I had to go warm up so I left for a while then came back. The race field was spread out all over the place, all alone or in small groups. When I came back to watch, Tim was off the front and setting the lap times. He seemed to be going faster every lap. Chris Lombardo was not letting the other guy catch up and held him where he was. He was having way too much fun. What a difference to see Tim's face all gritty teeth and determination and then comes along Lombardo smiling like he was just out riding a recovery ride on a sunny summer day! The kids were going crazy with cowbell!

Hank was hovering in fourth but Turin caught up to him and passed him up before the last lap. Hank dug deep to try to pass him back. Many of the other racers got stuck in the main peleton of racers. I think they were behind someone early in the first lap that was gapping or perhaps fumbled in the corner. This was what had caused the original split. It did not take long before ABD's Jim Nowak in the chase group saw what was going on and he got up front of that group and tried to go after the break. While I was watching, He seemed to be the only one hell bent on closing the gap. Soon he seperated off that group and he was alone. He is a power house and this was one course he could do some damage. I know from last week that just that fraction of 'wait' time being caught behind someone is enough for the front guy to get away. I am sure there were others that got caught in that huge peleton in the first part of the race and they had some difficulty getting away from the pack.
Tim won!
Chris Lombardo got Second and Hank got fifth, Wayne got sixth on his mountain bike!

Brian Doughtery raced cat 3's. (( He is the one who's wife trains show jumping horses.)) I picture them training together. Hmmm. That is a crazy image. I wonder if they raced, who'd be faster on these courses. Her and her horse, or him and his bike. I think he'd win. She'd have a tough time jumping the barricades while lifting up her horse up. :P

Brian won , again.
He is fast and SMOOOTH on the barricades. It is super fun to watch him race. They started the 1, 2's off before the 3's and they had a 2 minute head start. Brian seemed to make a plan to try to catch the leaders of the cat 1,2's. He shed off the other 3's and was off the front by a good lead. By the end of his race he had already caught onto the 4th and 5th place leaders of the 1,2's . He could not catch the front 3 guys, though, of that field. But he did try.

ANOTHER wonderful day. We had to scare out of there. One of the cat 4 men was wearing a wrestlers mask ...spoooky and about to race in full blown costume. Sorry we had to miss that! Hank's dad had a birthday so we were running late. Late for cake.
speaking of Cake......here is the lyrics of that cool song stuck in my head.

CAKE lyrics.
He's going the distance song::
Reluctantly crouched at the starting line,
Engines pumping and thumping in time.
The green light flashes, the flags goes up,
Churning and burning, they yern for the cup.
They deftly manouver and muscle for rank,
Fuel burning fast on an empty tank,
Wreckless and wild they pour thru the turns,
Their prowless is podent and secretly stern.
As they speed thru the finish the flags go down.
The fans get up, and get out of town.
The arena is empty except for one man,
Still driving and striving as fast as he can
The sun has gone down and the moon has come up,
And long ago somebody left with the cup,
But he's driving and striving and hugging the turns,
And thinking of someone for whom he still burns.

He's going the distance.
He's going for speed.
She's all alone,
all alone in her time of need.

Because he's racing and pacing and plotting the course,
He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse.
He's going the distance.Yeah!
No trophy, no flowers, no flash bulbs, no wine.
He's haunted by something he cannot define.
Bowel shaking earthquakes of doubt and remorse,
Assail him, impale him with monster truck force.
In his mind he's still driving, still making the grade
.She's hoping time that her memories will fade,
Cause he's racing and pacing and plotting the course,
He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse.
The sun has gone down and the moon has come up,
And long ago somebody left with the cup.
But he's striving and driving and hugging the turns,
And thinking of someone for whom he still burns.

Cause he's going the distance.
He's going for speed.
She's all alone, all alone in her time of need.
Because he's racing and pacing and plotting the course,
He's figting and biting and riding on his horse,
He's racing and pacing and plotting the course,
He's figting and biting and riding on his horse
!He's going the distance.
He's going for speed.
He's going the distance...

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.....