Pumpkin patch from the depths of down under

You either liked the race at Maris Farms or you didn't.  Really, there wasn't an in-between.  It doesn't matter which category you were in...it was hard and it was muddy.  A variety of mud really, peanut buttery mud, slick mud, bog type mud, tacky mud.  We experienced it all. 

To start my weekend off Chris and I returned home from Hawaii at 12:30am Friday/Saturday (however you look at it).  Of course after 9 hours of traveling it's hard to fall asleep right away so I didn't get to sleep until 2am.  I set my alarm for 8 am so we could wake up, eat breakfast, put our bikes together and head out to Ferndale to race our cross bikes in one of Ryan's races.  Well my alarm didn't go off and Chris woke up at 9 am (which woke me up) and I realized what time it was, jumped out of bed ran into the kitchen saw Kristen and told her of my situation (I race in 1.5 hours and my bike is in pieces).  So I went into the garage and Kristen came and helped me, she put my cyclocross tires back onto my bike (since I had my road tires on) and I put my seat post and handlebars back together.  With the help of all of us my bike was up and ready to go.  I slap on some clothes, throw some other clothes into a bag and away Chris and I go (9:30am) to Ferndale so I can race.  We get there at 10am, just in time to register and warm up a little bit.  I always take theses races a little less serious and don't race as hard, so I warmed up and put in about a 70-75% effort.  I certainly got a lot more out of that race.  It woke my legs up from vacation, and my lungs and I got done and felt SOOO good, ready to race on Sunday!



This is my excitement to race (although this was in Hawaii)

 After the races Chris and I went home showered, threw some clothes into a bag, did some laundry so we had clean clothes for the next day, got dressed and headed back down to Seattle to go to a Cucina Fresca team party.  We attend go home and go to sleep and rest up for the following day of races.

Sunday...we wake up and it's SUNNY!  I was excited, the air smelt crisp and the leaves were a beautiful color on the ground, I just couldn't wait to race my bike.  Here is how it went.  After the last race before we left for Hawaii Chris and I realized the benefit of brining a trainer to the race with us in order to warm up, especially since we have a tent we can warm up under.  So we brought a trainer so we could actually warm up for a race!  Before the men's 1/2 race I did a prelap of the course.  I truthfully should have listened to Aaron when he told me he wished he didn't do one.  But I went ahead and rode a prelap anyways, got my bike totally dirty, but more imporantly I got really muddy...and I wasn't racing for another 1.5 hours.  I waited in line to wash my bike off, went back to our tent and prepared myself for a trainer warm up with Nikole. 

I head to the start line, and as always we stand there for what seems like an eternity, but I got my call up! The worst part about my call up was me being pushed to the far left of the start line....I had to start in about 5 inches of mud...therefore I wasn't even on my bike when I started my race...I had to run with my bike for the first 10 seconds of the race and then do a remount.  When I remounted onto my bike and I tried to pedal I didn't go anywhere, and I looked down to realize my chain wasn't even on my chainring...AWESOME!  So I shifted up pedaled some and my chain popped back on.  I was feeling pretty good when I started and I was just going to try my best to ride steady don't sprint because once you get tired you start getting sloppy, and this course was not a course to be sloppy on...or else you would be getting sloppy with the mud.  I ended up passing quite a bit of the ladies during the first 5 minutes or less of the race, and before I realized it I was sitting in about 4th/5th place before the start of the 2nd lap.  Then here is what happened to me...sit back and get ready to laugh at the photos you are about to witness (they are hillarious):

Taking the line

Soon regretting the line

Aw sh*t get up bike

Laughing it off and continuing on...

Ooops I fell down!!!  It was pretty comical, I thought I was being all sly by taking the outside line...turns out it wasn't the one to take...so I didn't try that again.  About half way through my 2nd lap I passed the women who was in 3rd and I never looked back.  I was only about 1 minute back from 2nd place, but it wasn't enough for me to do a 6th lap...I was lapped by the single speeders...as always.  So I placed 3rd.  I am pretty happy with my third place finish considering one year ago was my first cyclocross race and I was in the CAT 4 field.  Right now I am 3rd in the series, it would be pretty cool to finish the year on the podium.  2 more races and I am still on cyclocross high.

 

I think I will go ride my mountain bike now.