There was an A group and a B group. Since I've been finishing in the back of the pack of the cat 4/5, I figured I would be a solid B. I was surprised when the Cross Results race predictor favored me to finish first in the Bs!
Woke up super early, and arrived in plenty of time for warm up. Light rain, and rain overnight, so it was pretty wet...Was one of the first to arrive, the race was held at a bike/ski store, and the doors were still closed. While I got myself organized, they opened, so I grabbed a number, pinned it and started on the course. Went with 24 lbs front and 27 rear, which is much lower than I have ever run, but figured that the ground was super wet and soft, and there was not much danger of bottoming out. This proved true, I never touched rim or felt I had too little air.
After a 1/2 hour of warm up, the A group lined up. A few of the other Bs commented that they thought I could have ridden with the As. Looking at the race predictor, I was favored to finish in the middle of that pack, so that probably would have been a better choice had I known ahead of time.
The A riders took off, and did 15 minutes then the Bs lined up. I was in a pack of soccer moms, 10 year olds, and a couple of beer bellies. And one skinny guy who looked like he knew what he was doing. I saw him letting air out of his tubular tires at the line, and knew I would have some competition.
I got the holeshot, no surprise, and kept it for a lap an a half. Skinny dude was sitting on my wheel, and once he decided to shoot by, I didn't see him for the rest of the race. Luckily, I lapped a few of my fellow Bs before the leader of that As lapped me. (It is pretty rare that I lap a rider in a race). (It did not feel terribly good).
The course did a lot of back and forth loops around the shop, a pretty tight course. Lots of muddy sections.
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| Peanut, peanut butter... MUDD |
And a section across the dock, and up the stairs. This section was pretty hairball, with soaking wet wood covered with a veneer of mud...
This feature was part of the course during warm up, but got pulled during the B race. I think they wanted to make it easier, though it was really easy to just roll over these, no need to dismount.
Short laps, I think about 5-6 minutes, so we got 5 laps in for a 30 minute race I think.
It was a fun race. I raced pretty hard though maybe not all out. No heart rate monitor, so I can't really tell for sure. With out dozens of riders breathing down my neck like most races, I was not as motivated to go at 100%. Though I was getting a pretty good workout in.
Had time to clean up and put on dry clothes, then we had the finishers ceremony. The store owner/ race organized brought out a pile of thanksgiving food to give out as prizes. 6 turkeys, stuffing, cranberry sauce, squashes, etc.
The kids race winners picked first, they both wanted squashes :) The As picked a mix of stuff, but there were a few vegetarians, so when they let Bs pick prizes, I was second, and scored a turkey!
It was a good race. Not the kind of power course I favor, even if it had been dry. Not super technical, either. I'd do it again, but line up in the A group next year, hopefully pull skinny dude up there with me and leave the B group to the beginners.
