1st cross race in HUP kit! Charm City. Got what I thought was an early enough start to head down to Bawlmer. Get there, find a decent parking spot and realize it is quiet a distance to the reg area. D'oh. Ride over and it takes longer than usual to sign in. get back to the car, get the bike on the trainer, get dressed and it's like 9:25 or so. Aaaarggghhhh!
Guess I'll leave more time next time...
So I warm up for about 20 min and head over to staging, deciding not to take the pit wheels along. Since I reg'd earlier this yr I got a decent start position. The gun (ok, whistle) went off and away we went. I got into the "tree" without having to stop this yr and that made a HUGE difference. My legs didn't feel great but after about 2 laps I started feeling better. Stomach was upset a bit, too. Still, I ran the sand pit, which was longer and harder this yr, pretty well, as well as the uphill barriers. Getting off and on the bike is starting to get second nature to me so that's good.
I ended up losing a few places last lap but wound up 55th out of 83 (they didn't have the age breakdown yet) so I am fairly happy with that result; MUCH better than last yr.
I'll get back to intervals this week and I won't go to Hershey park the day before and maybe my legs will feel better at Ed Sander. I would like to see a finish this yr where there are more finishing behind me than ahead of me. I think it's possible.
And I want to beat Thor.
Speaking of which, poor bastid rolled his tubie and had no wheels in the pit. From now on I am taking BOTH bikes and my extra rear wheel to the pit. It would suck MUCHO to have to DNF because of a mechanical.
Hopefully Kevin Dillard will have his pics of the race up soon so I can get a pic on here of me in my HUP kit; WC is so last yr....
