Gosh, so, the Thanksgiving weekend came and went… FAST!
(I really can’t believe it is already Thursday, in mid-October. Yikes).
Anyway, I held strong and did not end up entering the Victoria Marathon at the last minute (however, I did enjoy the expo – but alas, no free hair elastics this year). On race day, course conditions were pretty perfect, and well, I probably should have raced (and kind of wish I had), but I didn’t, so it’s time to move on.
That said, I did fill my role as clothing sherpa pretty well I think. I spectated, I cheered (and cowbelled) and hopefully even put a smile or two on a few people’s faces.
I opted not to bring my bike down, realizing it would be more of a hassle then it was worth. I also, unfortunately, forgot my carefully prepared 'spectator race plan' spreadsheet at home with the course map. Luckily I’ve run this event a few times, so I still knew what spots to hit (and when to hit them).
We (me, Shane, the rest of the fam) got into town with about 30’ to go before race start and began the 10min-ish walk from my parking spot, along the waterfront, to the race-day madness and the start line.
Kirsten of course had to pee. So we all waited while she stood in the porta-potty line. We saw a few other runners we knew, chatted… and waited.
About 5’ before the start, Shane seemed to be getting a bit anxious, so the two of us walked over to the start line. I ran into my friend Erin (haven’t seen her since her return from Paris). Gave hugs and wished Shane good luck, before running back to find the rest of my family and get the remainder of their warm clothes to put in the bag.
And just like that, they were off… (and so was I).
Since “Spectator Reports” are probably kind of boring, the quick and dirty is this…
I dashed from the 1k mark to 6k. Since there is a nice loop through the park, I also got to see 8k and then made my way up to 17k. Here I saw Kirsten and Shane. They were both moving much quicker than I had anticipated, so I then busted my ass to run (read: sprint!) back to the finish line (approximately 2km away), where about 60 seconds after arriving (and breaking into a massive amount of sweat), I heard Kirsten’s name over the loud speaker!
A quick congrats to her as she made her way through the finish chute to the food tent and then before I knew it, Shane was crossing the line too! For his first half marathon, he did AMAZING! So awesome. Like, I’m kind of pissed at him he did so well (just joking of course).
Next came Dad, then Mom (and a few others we knew in between) and before I knew it, the race was done and my duties as pack-mule were complete.
And yeah, my family totally and completely rocked it.
It was a great morning, that saw new PBs set (Kirsten, Shane, Dad - and I’m sure plenty of others) and course records broken, followed by a great evening of delicious food and many reasons to be thankful.
Monday was race day for me and my first actual Cyclocross race – the Condo Cross at Topaz Park.
What to say.
Well, first, CX is SO.MUCH.FUN! And hard. Like, really hard.
As for the race, well, in short, I accomplished my goals of not finishing last and not getting lapped by the leader – woo hooo!
Now, the long version…
I got to the park fairly early to do a beginner’s clinic. Really, that meant I got to ride the course once with a bit of instruction from one of the guys who has been doing this whole CX thing much longer than me (which doesn’t take much considering this was only my second cross ride ever). I think I picked up a few good little pointers and by the time the beginner women’s race rolled around, I was 2 parts nervous and 1 part raring-to-go.
The beginner women’s race started one minute after the beginner men’s race and was 3 laps. Each lap was about 2.5-3k. I started out really tentative, and just kind of let half of the field get away from me (there were only 11 of us beginner ladies). I don’t love having other people right around me and didn’t want to crash into anyone, so, admittedly, I was just being a big old wuss.
As the first lap progressed, I started to get a bit more confident. I started to push a little harder and my lungs started to burn.
Then came a nice technical section, and my first wipeout. It happened so fast, I’m not entirely sure what actually happened, but what I think, went something like this…
I was excited to be gaining on other people (I think I had actually just passed one?), which also made me really nervous. It my excitement/panic, I did not take the corner properly and totally forgot that the uphill and corner combo I was now coming into pretty much doubled-back on itself (hard to explain).
[I think] my tire turned sideways and I went over the handlebars. I landed flat out in a belly flop on the side of the hill. My shoes came unclipped in the crash so I was able to pop back up in about 0.001 of a second (this had nothing to do with my total embarrassment for my massive bail), run to the top of the hill and try to get back on my bike to keep going. My parents, who were watching, may have a different version of events.
After that first crash, I wasn’t really afraid of wiping out anymore. My bike was still working, and I didn’t hurt anything (although I do have some pretty glorious bruises now). So, the next two laps, I totally pushed harder, definitely gaining confidence on each one.
I had a few more minor spills (nothing as spectacular as the first one) mainly due to pushing too hard into corners and not really thinking about the degree of corner that was coming up.
I managed to catch and pass two women (well, one woman, one young girl) in front of me (and one guy – although, he was like 12 years old, so let’s maybe not talk about that) and just really had a blast.
By the time I finished, my legs were screaming and my lungs were burning, but it felt oh-so-good.
I had a really great time, and honestly think that if I wasn’t such a big chicken at the start, and rode all 3 laps like I did the final one, I would have been closer to the front… Something to strive for next time I suppose.
My only disappointment with the day is that I didn’t discover cross racing earlier. The season is almost done and I’ve only just begun! (and apparently I'm a poet).
And well, I think that is that... Until next time.
Thanks for reading.
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