The Event: Ed Sander Memorial Cross Race (MABRA #1)
The Finish: 3rd Place – 1/2/3 Elite Women, 1st place – Cat 3 Women
Prologue: This was my first cross race of the season and I spent the week leading up to it being all I don’t know if I’m cut out for this, I’m scared and unmotivated, I can’t stop feeling/whining/worrying, and so on. In other words, a model of confidence and preparedness. Saturday was supposed to be a 2-3 hour endurance ride to prepare for the race, but I put off the ride until the very end of the day when it was cold, dark, and pouring steadily. I then rode for two hours, coming home freezing and soaking wet after 9pm. My coach would cry if she knew this. I cried too, but that was before the ride back during the part about the feelings and the doubt. What, you don’t cry about cycling? What’s wrong with you?
I also got a pinch flat last Thursday when I was eight miles from home with no tools, tube, pump, or common sense. As luck would have it, a very nice fellow biker came by and saved my ass by pulling off my tire with his tire levers, patching both holes with his last two patches, and filling my tires using his pump and a CO2 cartridge. My contribution was to stand there and feel stupid for being an ill-prepared supply mooch and for making this poor man stop on his ride home to help me change my tire.
That patch held through the rest of that ride and up until the ride on Saturday night, at which point I realized my only spare tube at home did not have a long enough valve stem to work with my deep-dish carbon rims. Needing to get on with the ill-timed training ride from hell, I fixed the leaking patches with a band of duct tape, reinstalled the tube and tire, and did the ride. The patch held but leaked air steadily overnight, leading to a flat on the morning of the race. Performance Bike (the only shop open early on a Sunday) did not have a tube that would work, so I ended up at the race with no spare tubes and one held together with the equivalent of office supplies.
This is already getting too long, so I’ll wrap up this section. I debated all morning about whether or not to race (BOO HOO), decided when we pulled into the parking lot of the venue that it was probably too late to back out, and warmed up on the muddy course and the nearby roads. Then it was time to party.
The Race: I think this section of my race reports will almost always be hard to write coherently, because races are a blur in my mind when I look back over them. The start and finish usually stick out, as well as any crazy feats or bad crashes, but everything else is a blur of suffering, exertion, and asking myself WHY WHY WHY. Need proof? Look at any picture of me during a race. It will be some variation of these faces, none of which are happy:
Anyhoo, back to this race. My start was pretty good, although I was scared to make the first right turn at top speed and wipe out on the wobbly cross bike. Then there were barriers (ugh), mud (ugh), and the best crash I’ve ever witnessed from TS (who put her head in a lily pond and STILL had an awesome race). I was a mess over the barriers; having insufficiently practiced my dismount/remount, I would come to a screeching halt, dismount, lumber over the boards, flop back onto the bike, and fail at getting the thing moving again without kicking the front tire or having to put a foot down. On the final lap, I ran all the way through the turn after the barriers and seriously considered continuing the race on foot.
The mud was less and less of an issue as the race went on, although there was the one time when my front wheel got sucked into a deep pit and I gracefully rolled over the handlebars, clipping the girl who made the unfortunate choice to ride my wheel. The only other crash was at the bottom of a muddy run-up; somehow in the process of dismounting, I fell over. It was awkward; I don’t need to relive the moment.
I did a total of four laps, sitting around 4th or 5th at the beginning, and then pulling up to 3rd and finally 2nd in the second half of the last lap. There was no strategy involved in this, just a lot of pedaling and listening to Bobby cheer, “I know you’re hurting, baby, but I am SO PROUD OF YOU, KEEP GOING!” I always want to throw things at the people on the sidelines who yell encouraging things while I am suffering like a dog, but they are also often the only reason I remember to keep turning the pedals and suffering.
I came into the final stretch maybe five feet ahead of EH, and we both stood up to sprint for the finish. This part is a little fuzzy, but I remember that she was closing in on my left, I was giving 110%, and then I thought we crossed the line so I let up the tiniest bit and she flew past me to take 2nd. Did she pass me because she was faster or because I slacked off or both? Frankly, she was faster, but I think I could have held off her charge for another few feet if I’d just kept going. I don’t know and it doesn’t really matter; she put up a better sprint and got the spot, dropping me into a 3rd place that I felt completely lucky and surprised to have anyway.
Epilogue: I am so glad this race is done, if only because I got the first one over with and I’ve finally taken that cross bike to (and survived through) a race. My expectations were low going into this event – I didn’t know how I would do racing in the Elite Women class and I was sort of hoping that I could fade into the pack and just ride my own race. But that’s not how it worked out; I know now that I can be competitive in this class, so I feel this pressure to do well and push harder and OH MY GOD enough with the damn feelings already.
It was a good day. I won some cash and cool stuff, managed to make the same unattractive face in each of the two dozen race photos I’ve seen, and got to play in the mud while doing a sport that at its very core is just a little bit ridiculous.
Next Up: Kelley Acres Cross (MABRA #3)