Off to the races...

It's always two days after a hard effort that I feel the most sore. In that case, I'm going to be definitely feeling it tomorrow...

It's cross season again, and I had my first race of the year on Sunday at BamaCross #1 at Avondale Park here in Birmingham. They held a race at this same park last year, and for the most part the course followed the same route. The few changes they did make made the race a lot tougher than it was last year (and it was already a plenty tough race). Last year it would be considered a "runner's" course, with 2 long and one short run up. This year, it was much more power oriented with the second long run up rerouted to be mostly rideable. A couple extra twists and an off camber section made this much more of a power course instead.

I did fairly well here last year, running right around the top 10 until I got a flat on the penultimate lap that left my bike hobbled and me doing a bit more running than I should have. I finished my last lap on my mountain bike to come in 20th out of 21 finishers. A little disappointing.

Let me just say, I don't think this course likes me. This year, I line up at the start about mid pack and held that position through most of the first lap. As we started toward the back half of the last lap, I realize my front tire is feeling a little low. Shortly after that, I realize that I have caught a flat again this year. Great...

As a side note, the tire that went flat was the one that I spent a few hours gluing onto the rim. One of the benefits is that they are supposedly less flat prone. I guess not for me today.

Now to add injury to insult, I get crashed into as I near the pit area to swap out my now flat front wheel for a spare. As I go sprawling into the dirt, I blurt out "Aww F#$%# Dude!" I'm not sure what I was more embarrassed about. Dropping the F Bomb was bad enough, but to punctuate it with the word "Dude" just added another level of lame. The result was a nice set of scrapes on my left arm and leg. As Morgan put it, "Daddy got a boo-boo."

Anyway, I make it to the pit, pull out the flat wheel and try putting the spare back onto the bike. I was wearing full fingered gloves, and every time I went to put the cable end into the brake arm, the fingertip of my glove kept jamming in the way. So, off comes the glove, the cable gets re-attached, the gloves go back on and I'm back out onto the course. Other than a few young juniors, I don't see anyone within eyeshot on the course. This isn't going to be fun.

Long story short, I end up spending the rest of the race trying to catch the tail end of the race to try to save something for the day. I end up passing a few people and finish up 23rd out of 28 in our class. Not exactly the result I was looking for, but I guess my results can only improve from here.

I was glad to have Samantha and Morgan out as my personal cheering squad. It was nice pick me up each lap to hearing them shouting encouragement as I went by. It was also fun catching up with some folks that I generally only see at races.

Two more weeks until the next race. Wish me luck!