Feeling like a rock star

Tom, Christopher and I trekked to DeKalb yesterday for the Half Acre cross race. I was torn between DeKalb and the Wisconsin race which would have been two miles of dirt trails. DeKalb's course was slightly more than two miles, lots of grass, two big stretches of pavement. It did have a lot of turns but, with it being more than 2 miles, it was still a course for fast people.

There were only 11 girls in my race. I had a good start but a few more girls got by me -- particularly as I was trying to get over the barriers, which were up to my knees. I was 9th out of 11. I could see eighth but could never close the gap. On the new tire/wheel front, I had let out too much air in addition to my brakes shuddering. So, I cheered on the Women 4's and decided I wanted to sign up for the Men 4B's if there were any spots left.

There was a great park where we were at and Christopher was more than happy to spend more time there in addition to eating cookies and bananas from the bake sale. There were six spots left when I signed up. I socialized, spent time with Tom and Christopher and tried to eat. The only thing I could get down was a package of Clif blocks and a Gu. I did a lap before the 4A's and spun around a little but didn't really warm-up again. Not a great recipie for success. But, I did get a first row start (lining up early once I saw Bob with Beverly Vee Pak already lined up). And, I had people cheering for me pretty much all over the course. Thus, the feeling like a rock star. (And, Tom had put more air in my tires and adjusted my brakes -- Yea for Tom!) I was in the lower 30's for most of the race but gave up about 4 spots, according to Tom, the last lap. I finished 36 out of 71. There are a bunch of turns before a straight shot to the finish. I heard someone saying something like "You're not going to let a girl beat you, are you" and realized there was a guy right behind me. I sprinted, went to a harder gear, sprinted, went to a harder gear and out-sprinted the guy. Woo hoo!

Tom has had a cold so he didn't race. They changed the ChiCrossCup schedule but Tom will still have to race the 123's for us to both be able to warmup and race. We'll definitely do Dan Ryan since it's so close and Beverly Vee-Pak is planning an awesome course. We may go up to Grafton and do the Wisconsin cross race on Saturday but we're not sure yet. Hopefully, we can both stay healthy.