well my first cross race is in the books. all in all i'm quite satisfied with the result. here's how the weekend went down...
mary, sampson and i got up early on saturday and drove to portland. sampson was awsome in the car. sometimes i'd forget he was with us until he'd move around. we stopped and had lunch in eugene, which was delicious. got to portland in the midafternoon, checked in to our hotel, and drove to portland international raceway to see if they had the course set up yet. they didn't, but it was nice to see the race was only about 10 minutes from our hotel. it had been raining off and on friday and saturday in portland, so a muddy race was expected. we ate some dinner near PIR and went back to the hotel. i didn't sleep really well in the hotel room, i was starting to get a head cold and i can never sleep well in hotels knowing all the nasty people slept in the same bed before me ( i know they wash the sheets, but its still nasty.)
woke up early on sunday and ate some breakfast and headed to PIR. got to PIR around 8 o'clock, registered and did some recon laps before the start of the beginners race. got on the trainer when the beginners started and warmed up for about 45 minutes. i ate a clif bar and some gels, and downed a gatorade and some water. rode the course a couple more laps with the race wheels, and put the back-up wheels in the pit.
i got to the start line a little late for the mens C race, so i was stuck on the back row. i was a little annoyed with having to start from the back, but it was my first race, and i didn't know what to expect. at the start i passed about half of the 60 man field on the long flat paved section leading into the first turn, which was a 90 degree left hander onto a loose gravel path. i held my position until the first set of barries which were the normal 40 cm high double barriers, but right after the barriers was a large cement slab that doubled like third barrier. at the barriers i passed quite a few other riders and held my position for a couple hundred meters. about half way through the lap the course was very fast and not very technical at all. about 3/4 through the lap there was a short, steep downhill section that immediately turned and went up the same hill with another set of barriers at the top. the course was so wet and slick with mud that riders where going down all over the place. i dismounted at the top of the hill and ran until after the barriers. i used quite a bit of energy working my way through the field on the first lap. i think i was in about 20th place after the first lap. my legs were screaming, and i glanced at my HRM and saw 198 bpm. the first lap took about 7 1/2 minutes to complete.
the second lap was a lot less hectic since the feild was strung out nicely. i rode pretty hard and passed a couple more people. i crashed hard in the mud befere the second set of barriers on an off-camber downhill corner. i only lost one position, and myself and the bike were unhurt ( i was quite muddy though.) the rest of the race went very smoothly and i kept passing people and was feeling really good. on the last lap i caught 3rd place during the high speed flat section and stayed on his wheel until the last set of barriers. i passed him over the barriers, but he got inside of me on the last corner and retook the place coming out of the corner. i jumped on his wheel and the sprint was on for the finish. my calves cramped up bad, and i was unable to pass him, and i settled for 4th place. i immediately vomited as i crossed the finish line.
after the race i looked at my heart rate monitor again. my average HR was 194, and my max HR was 203. for 45 minutes thats pretty incredible! i think if i had a better start position and was on the front row where i belonged, i probably could have podiumed. i was surprised at how good my cyclocross skills were compared with the other cat C's. i seemed to make up a lot of time on guys during the dismounts, run-ups and over the barriers. weird. teh bike worked flawlessly, but i seemed to get an awful lot of mud caked on my shoes which made cliping into the pedals difficult. i had to tap out the mud often on the side of the pedals. as i'm writing this my left shoulder aches something fierce. i can only assume its from my crash.
when we got home i checked the obra website, and it had my offical place at 8th. the announcer said 4th place, and i know there wasn't 7 riders ahead of me, so who knows what place i got. i know i was competite though, and that was my only goal going into it. my next race is october 29th. my goal there is a top 10 finish. they limit the feild sizes to 100 racers, so a top 10 would be impressive.
till later,
brooks
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