October 6 & 7 - back home race weekend

I had a few thoughts for this blog entry but not quite sure what I exactly want to say this week.   There was no major trip 450 miles northeast this weekend.  No epic races for me with 50+ crazy elite women racers from all over.  I was so "high" from my trip last week.  It took me a few days to come down and I could feel myself shift into a diff mental mood space.  (My body felt it immediately tho -- more deep tissue massage is def needed).

This week was a local weekend. In the end it made my life much easier --- managing my transition "back to work", getting my cross bike maintenance taken care of (thanks Twenty20), and spending time with my family T, Rascal, and Roxy Bear Bear.   But I def didn't have the same enthusiastic energy from last week.  My body didn't have that extra zip either....my 36 year old body was def wondering, do I get a  rest yet??  Pllllaaaeeeeze.  (No dammit, not until Cancun end of October.  :)

Anyway... without the excitement of a trip weekend, I shifted and became aware of other things.  I became very aware of why I love my local race scene and how lucky I am to have a community of friends, teammates and fellow racers to share it all with ...

So Saturday:   race was 12 miles away.  pretty RAD as some of my friends may say ;-).   Yeah 20 min and I was there.   Afforded me extra time to run errands in the AM and grab some BBQ supplies for the team.  Race was in Sykesville on the property of a closed down former mental institution.  They call it PsychoCX.  :) 

The cat 1/2 elite women field was small, 1 row of riders in the grid.  Yeah 1.  But the course was impressively challenging and included:  

• two run ups quite meanly close to one another.   
• Tons of off camber turns.  
• Short punchy rises.  
• A nice log obstacle.  
• And a set of barriers.   
• And teammates, friends, and T cheering us all on

 

So the course forced us off the bike 3x per lap and put some grimaces on many of our faces.   My Gloucester travel partner and friend, AT, took 1st Saturday.   And it didn't come easy.   She and LM were battling it out hard core.   They pretty much gapped me in lap 1 on the first run up.  Both were riding strong and so there they went, bbbbaaaabye.   But since the course was tight I could see that they continued to tit and tat one another in a cat and mouse game the whole time.  Nice racing ladies.

Meanwhile, Traci from WV was putting a hurting on me.   She raced into 3rd and was my carrot for the remainder of the race.  Thanks Traci, you were a good carrot.   Mentally, I was a bit fried from 5 weekends of racing.   Physically, I knew my bod was tired well before i started.  Regardless though, I raced well .  It was hard not to push myself especially since I could hear my Tracy roaring "GET ON HER WHEEL" from the sidelines.   Always feels like Tracy is EVERYWHERE on the course - finding me - and encouraging me with her authoritative, commanding, and scary-to-disappoint-her cheers.  Well Tracy gets in my head in a good way in the end.  Don't want to disappoint the Coach.  Naaaaaooooo.

The team atmosphere was great too.  Bruce had his pug and a big cooler of bevvy's.   Shea brought his friend and Allie.   Joe and Jay were in the mix.  Saw Shawn out there racing.  And there were a few others in black and blue.   Good stuff.

In addition, the temps were in the 70s and the rain held out.  Yeah, a dry course was a nice luxury on Saturday.

Oh and my friend Heather crushed the cat 3 field taking her first win of the weekend.  Well done Heather, very well done!

Sunday - Hyattsville Race northern DC:  so the weather forecast Saturday evening into Sunday was reminiscent of Gloucester.  Rain.  100% chances of rain.  Only difference was temps were projected to be high in the 40s.  Mentally, I prepared myself for mega mud.  Somehow in my mind, as of late, my mental image projection of the race course IS MUCH MUCH worse than reality.  For that, I thank-you weather for not matching my crazy imagination.

I carpooled down to DC with my travel bud again.   Ellie, my Element, was once again packed with tons of CX equipment.  Rack still on top.  3 bikes.  Tons of cr@p.  Yeah TONS.  Makes me laugh.  Ellie's a trooper.

We made it down to the cousre around 9A - enough time to get an early pre-ride lap before the rains made the course worse.  Hyattsville was much as I remembered from last year.  Same start.  Same turns around the courts.  Felt like they had super highway grassy straightaways for those crazy roadie power folks.  Bah!  A few off cambered switchy turns.   And a crazy woods section that would have been SO much easier on my 29" mountain bike wheels.   Yeah that section was a bit dicey.  The woods included:

• Loose loomy soil
• a nice fast descent into a rooty, tough right hander

My super sweet carbon zipp wheels, while super nice, had negligible braking.  Yeah, felt like no braking actually.  So I steamrolled right into the orange fence on my 2nd attempt during practice laps.  Yeah thank-you for working that out during the practice laps.  Niccccccccccccccccce.  Ha.  Decided that taking that last turn slow would be the key and then I could nail the finish single track back out in to the open grass.

By the way, I watched the Master 3/4 men go through that section twice during their 10A race.  Man, testosterone is a crazy chemical.  Men were flying -- some were yardsaling hard core and some were so freaking squirrelly yet remained up right.  Just made me think - a little dose of that crazy (?) manly hormone before a race might be the secret to pushing myself really far outside my risk comfort zone....anyway....

Shea rocked his first podium in the Killer B's today, that very same field.  Way to go Shea.  Really sweet seeing you out in 2nd most of the race and then knowing you were able to make a go at first in the woods and keep the lead.  You rocked today.  Yeah man.

So my race was okkkkkk.  Still tired.  Got  a decent start and held the lead pack into the woods.  The first three ladies just had more OOOOOoooomph than I did and bbbbaaaabye they went in front of me.   Today though I was Traci (from WV)'s carrot.  Yeah Traci sucked my wheel the entire race.  Just COULD NOT shed her dammit.  I tried.  My tracy was not there but I kept standing, sprinting up to high speed thinking, get this girl OFF my wheel.  WEll my Tracy would have been proud to see me standing and powering up but it wasn't quite enough gas to shed this WV gal.  Traci from WV made a move with a lap to go and needless to say that gap made it to the finish.  I KNOW she felt the pressure and we shook hands congratulating one another after the race.   She and I raced hard and we had each other in the race to keep one another very honest.  Traci - your welcome, I was your carrot today.

So there was another podium to be happy for after the race and I was kind of so-so about it.   Not disappointed but not enthusiastic.  Some of my punchy Jen chipper energy just wasn't there.

I was a bit in my head for the remainder of the day alhtough most would never know....at least from what I could tell.

I was thinking about other things - like:

• Heather winning another race (two wins in a weekend).  She rocked it.  God, her smile was so big.  She replayed her race report to me after my podium and her energy was awesome.   It was great to have that "share out" time with her.   It was even better to do all the LISTENING in that conversation.  Well done Heather.  Time to upgrade?????  tee hee.  Come join us - you are welcome here!
• Mel.   Mel, I am so effin proud of you.   4th place.   I still need a more formal 1x1 report out from you.  But looking you in the eye and really listening to you about how you beat out two opponents that ususally get you made me so proud.  So happy for you chica.  That feeling is awesome.  Makes you want to bottle it, doesn't it?   Makes you want to keep coming back right?   Anyway.  I was thinking about how far you've come in such a short amount of time.  You're going to school me soon.  Until then though, I'll keep reminding you how you have "kick ass" power in your genes.  Yeah, I'm a tad jealous of that.  Good jealous.
• Shea, you're the man.  That's all I have to say.  Way to bring major positive energy to the races both days.  Your win was sweet.    
• Emily, you rocked today.  Your plastic bag with your beer was very ghetto cool.  Ha.  You were an important part of my daily lesson today.  Your kind words about "us fast girls" really gave me perspective.  Part of me quickly dismissed your compliment and for that I apologize.  You reminded me to tell myself about my journey in this sport.   You also helped me see that I needed to let go of some of my perfectionism today.  so mega thanks for your kind words.  It was really cool seeing you both before and after race today.  Your smile lights up the race.  I love that.  Can't wait to see you at Seneca next week.  Yes, Seneca will be your DCCX warmup.  YES MAAM!  *WINK*
• C3 boys, you rock.  Thanks for all the cheers during race.  I needed 'em.
• And Hyattsville, thanks for hooking us with a great race today.  Very cool how we have so many races in our Midatlantic area.  Some small, all of them growing.  All within an hour, two or even 12 miles from my house door-to-door.

In the end we race because we love the way we feel when we do.
Today, it was awesome feeling and taking in everyone's energy.   I love this sport and I love what it continues to teach me about others and more importantly, myself.

I also want to thank Loki and AT for the lively entertainment post race.  I dig you both.  And A, somehow I think we can remain friends for another 350 days.  2013 CX planning.  i love that we are all starting to plan next year right away.... sweet stuff.   Nice to know we made it through trip 1 as friends.  :) ha.