Last mountainbike race of the year

This weekend was hectic and involved both cross as well as my last mountainbike race of the year.

On Saturday I went to the Half Acre Women's CX Clinic. It was geared more towards beginners but was lead by Kristin Wentworth and was only $15. It was fun, cool to hang out with everyone, good to get in some CX practice and I did learn some things. I realized I wasn't grabbing my top tube during the dismounts and they pointed out another technique mistake. It is really hard to concentrate on two different things so I may have to focus on the hand on the top tube first for awhile unless I want some magnificent crashes attempting to go over barriers in my near future. = )

Pretty much as soon as I got back, we headed down to Hudson so I could preride the course. Fun course with some bridges, log piles, etc. I rode some things Saturday night knowing I wouldn't ride them during the race as the other line was faster. We were able to camp nearby which was nice. Race morning, I did another lap as it is a short course at less than five miles. My legs were tired from all the CX mounts & dismounts the day before. Oh well. I warmed up and then it was time for the kids' race. The photo above is Christopher doing the kids race at Comlara Park. He had fun. We still can't get him interested in riding bikes that actually have pedals -- unless it is hooked up to my bike. He got a small box of sidewalk chalk, a sticker and a t-shirt. Pretty cool.

I lined up with only two other girls. Betsy who is a wickedly good and fast mountainbiker and a girl named Rachel, who I was told was a fast roadie that does adventure races. The guy in charge told Betsy we'd start two minutes after the guys. He tells the sport guys to go and then yells that we should be going with them. I took advantage of the slight confusion and got in front. We soon were on the sport men and started slowly passing them. I was actually able to keep the lead for half a lap. Yea me! Betsy passed me and I thanked her for letting me be 1st briefly. = ) Rachel had passed us at one point earlier and then crashed. She later passed me and got a little gap and I saw her crash at least 3 more times. The last section of singletrack had a lot of logs and long bridges and I was right on her tail -- then we came to a long fast section before the start/finish and I never saw her again. It was fun pretending to be one of the fast girls but I definitely went way too hard the first lap and could have felt better the last three laps. I took 3rd, which got me the most points for the season but I was DFL. Granted, I was beat by two really quick chicks but being DFL still is not a big ego boost. We were each in different age categories so they gave me a gold medal for being first in 30-39. Later, I looked more closely at the medal and realized it said "Novice Women," which seemed typical of how they have been treating the Women's Open category. I did also get a $10 gift card for a bike shop near there.

Tom did two laps of the course afterwards while Christopher & I chilled in the RV. We stopped at a park before the drive back. He got to play with two little kids and had fun. We thought he'd pass out on the way home but he was really hyper most of the way and finally passed out once we were off the highway.

Now, it will be all cross, cross, cross baby! First CX race of the year will be in Wisconsin on Saturday followed by Jackson Park on Sunday. I'm sure I'll be excited later in the week. Today, I'm exhausted and sore.