Fall Leaves and Racing

I don't mind the first part of Fall, when the trees are all nice and colorful. I even kind of dig that great smell of the leaves that you get in the fall. The only problem is that in the back of my mind, I know that the next step is for all the leaves to fall off, the snow to come, the days to grow still shorter, and for the cold. Bleh. On Friday though, there was definitely some good color for my ride up Four-Mile;

Saturday was the Interlocken cyclocross race. Our one real course that includes a ton of grass. Fun to race on for the most part, except that it isn't so well suited for me. It kind of cracks me up that there is so much grass, and most of it is usually saturated with water (making the course even more of a leg-sapper!), and not because of the weather, but because of the crazy amount of water sprinklers they use.

I was on the single speed again, and this time they started us again, only a bit over 30 seconds behind the 72 Cat 3 starters. Which of course meant we were right into the crowd within a quarter of a lap. It was time for passing galore!

I over-cooked the first few laps a bit, and started to pay for it in the middle of the race. But I was pushing hard, trying to get around riders whenever I could. I wasn't helped by the fact that I kept getting run into by other riders, got tangled with a dude trying to ride the sand-trap when he veered into me, and just plain not having the smoothest race.

But Clay rode solid, and after race where we both passed 50+ riders, I just couldn't quite reel him back. So I had to settle for second. On the way to the race, and after last weeks race, I might have to throw myself, with or without The Hulk, into some more of the 35+ and Open races. I can be pretty competitive in those, and still have the fun of the single speed. Doing the Open race is nice, since you get an additional 15 minutes of torture for your entrance fee, but it takes more motivation to race later in the day.

Either way, as expected, this course took some serious energy output! I was wasted for the remainder of the day, but it was fun, the weather was great, and it's always good to be out with all the fellow bike goons.