Badger Cross
There is so many things I could say about Badger Cross . . . about the race, my racing, the fun. I think I would have to ride a novel to sum it all up.
I don't have time to do justice to it all today but here's a few things just to keep the blog interesting . . .
My Race: At 12:10pm I looked at my watch and freaked out as my race was at 1pm. I grabbed a bagel and started trying to eat it since I hadn't eaten anything since 6:30am. I became distracted with things that needed my attention and only ate a few bites. At 12:20pm I freaked out because I had not been hydrating. I grabbed my bottle of water and started drinking and then tried to eat some more bagel.
I then realized I needed to do the awards for the women and junior's race so I got out the prizes. Then I got my bike clothes, sprinted to the bathroom, and changed at warp speed. Then I sprinted back and quickly did the awards. Then I gave directions to my volunteers for doing the Cat 3 awards while I am racing. At this point it was probably 12:40pm and I put on my shoes, got my bike off the top of the car and then I realized I forgot to do the awards for the Beginner Women's race. I grabbed their medals and pint glasses and asked our race announcer to do it for me.
It's now about 12:50pm and I grab the bike pump from our technical support to put a little air in my tires. Luckily the mechanic helps me since I'm a bit frazzled at this point. I go out and ride for about 3 minutes. I see my friend Jess and I ask her if she has a Clif Shot, Clif block, anything. She has Clif Blocks in the car so I eat two and hope that will carry me through the race. I ride for one more minute of warm up and it's time to start.
I start okay, quickly am in last place, pass Shannon on a grassy corner, pass Abigail with a mechanical issue, get passed back by Abigail, but stay in 2nd to last until we hit the road climb. On the road Shannon passes me back. I chase as best I can but lap one hurt. Oh wait, laps one through five hurt actually. I continue to chase for the next few laps suffering but reminding myself that I love cross and this is my course so no backing off.
On lap four my teammate Sam suffers a mechanical and fixes it just as I come by so we're together for a bit. She passes me and I follow as best as I can. At the sandpit I know she'll be riding it so I am right behind her. Then the most comical moment of the day as she goes down in the sand (the one time ever), I am slow to react and plow into her bike which she has jumped off. I do a crazy jump off as my bike plows into the sand. We get our bikes up and are glad no one just saw us. Teamwork at its finest! She takes off fast. I take off slower. I spend a quarter lap with bad shifting as the sand works its way out of my shift levers.
I go through the lap area finally with one lap to go (and I can't believe I have one more as it's already 47 minutes into a 45 minute race). I try to keep riding hard on my last lap but the motivation, energy and legs are gone. I do rock the corners superbly well but have no energy for the log run up. I finish in 58 minutes and in 8th/last place. I'm really glad I decided that the 1/2 races would payout 8 deep as I win $25 for surviving and gain valuable series points.
There is virtually no food left at the finish (no boca burgers, no cookies, very few chips, no root beer just beer). Racers like food so I'm not that suprised (and we did raise some money through donations at our food area for the BFW which was super cool). I find a volunteer to make a bagel run so the next race group has something to eat when they are done. Samantha and I eat pickles together (they're salty). Then it's back to race directorship time. After half hour I finally find time to change my clothes.
And the race in general: The race set a record for attendance at a Wisconsin cross race with 225 plus the kid's race. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. I got tons of really nice comments from racers. My team had a good time. The Schwinn team had a good time. One of our sponsors came out to see what cross was all about. I got to see lots of people that I hadn't seen since last season and meet some people that I know via the web which was really fun. The Kid's race looked like they were having a good time. What a weekend!
When I finally got home after clean up last night I was too tired to get out of the car. I was going to call and have food delivered to the car but I didn't have Hong Kong's phone number programmed in to the phone. Plus I thought we had coupons in the house. If not for that I might never have left the car. When the food came I ate a lot and I ate it fast. I also was super dehydrated and kept drinking and drinking and drinking. I'm still not caught up.
Then I ended up going to bed at 8:45pm. I was editing/sorting race photos but I just was too tired to keep going. I'll hopefully get some posted after yoga tonight. It was a little chaotic but Dave did get some from most races (except that we're both racing at the same time now so no 40/50+ and Cat 1/2 Women photos).
I don't have time to do justice to it all today but here's a few things just to keep the blog interesting . . .
My Race: At 12:10pm I looked at my watch and freaked out as my race was at 1pm. I grabbed a bagel and started trying to eat it since I hadn't eaten anything since 6:30am. I became distracted with things that needed my attention and only ate a few bites. At 12:20pm I freaked out because I had not been hydrating. I grabbed my bottle of water and started drinking and then tried to eat some more bagel.
I then realized I needed to do the awards for the women and junior's race so I got out the prizes. Then I got my bike clothes, sprinted to the bathroom, and changed at warp speed. Then I sprinted back and quickly did the awards. Then I gave directions to my volunteers for doing the Cat 3 awards while I am racing. At this point it was probably 12:40pm and I put on my shoes, got my bike off the top of the car and then I realized I forgot to do the awards for the Beginner Women's race. I grabbed their medals and pint glasses and asked our race announcer to do it for me.
It's now about 12:50pm and I grab the bike pump from our technical support to put a little air in my tires. Luckily the mechanic helps me since I'm a bit frazzled at this point. I go out and ride for about 3 minutes. I see my friend Jess and I ask her if she has a Clif Shot, Clif block, anything. She has Clif Blocks in the car so I eat two and hope that will carry me through the race. I ride for one more minute of warm up and it's time to start.
I start okay, quickly am in last place, pass Shannon on a grassy corner, pass Abigail with a mechanical issue, get passed back by Abigail, but stay in 2nd to last until we hit the road climb. On the road Shannon passes me back. I chase as best I can but lap one hurt. Oh wait, laps one through five hurt actually. I continue to chase for the next few laps suffering but reminding myself that I love cross and this is my course so no backing off.
On lap four my teammate Sam suffers a mechanical and fixes it just as I come by so we're together for a bit. She passes me and I follow as best as I can. At the sandpit I know she'll be riding it so I am right behind her. Then the most comical moment of the day as she goes down in the sand (the one time ever), I am slow to react and plow into her bike which she has jumped off. I do a crazy jump off as my bike plows into the sand. We get our bikes up and are glad no one just saw us. Teamwork at its finest! She takes off fast. I take off slower. I spend a quarter lap with bad shifting as the sand works its way out of my shift levers.
I go through the lap area finally with one lap to go (and I can't believe I have one more as it's already 47 minutes into a 45 minute race). I try to keep riding hard on my last lap but the motivation, energy and legs are gone. I do rock the corners superbly well but have no energy for the log run up. I finish in 58 minutes and in 8th/last place. I'm really glad I decided that the 1/2 races would payout 8 deep as I win $25 for surviving and gain valuable series points.
There is virtually no food left at the finish (no boca burgers, no cookies, very few chips, no root beer just beer). Racers like food so I'm not that suprised (and we did raise some money through donations at our food area for the BFW which was super cool). I find a volunteer to make a bagel run so the next race group has something to eat when they are done. Samantha and I eat pickles together (they're salty). Then it's back to race directorship time. After half hour I finally find time to change my clothes.
And the race in general: The race set a record for attendance at a Wisconsin cross race with 225 plus the kid's race. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. I got tons of really nice comments from racers. My team had a good time. The Schwinn team had a good time. One of our sponsors came out to see what cross was all about. I got to see lots of people that I hadn't seen since last season and meet some people that I know via the web which was really fun. The Kid's race looked like they were having a good time. What a weekend!
When I finally got home after clean up last night I was too tired to get out of the car. I was going to call and have food delivered to the car but I didn't have Hong Kong's phone number programmed in to the phone. Plus I thought we had coupons in the house. If not for that I might never have left the car. When the food came I ate a lot and I ate it fast. I also was super dehydrated and kept drinking and drinking and drinking. I'm still not caught up.
Then I ended up going to bed at 8:45pm. I was editing/sorting race photos but I just was too tired to keep going. I'll hopefully get some posted after yoga tonight. It was a little chaotic but Dave did get some from most races (except that we're both racing at the same time now so no 40/50+ and Cat 1/2 Women photos).
posted by MadCross at 7:45 AM
2 Comments:
You did an awesome job with this race! Truly a west coast level of excitement and fun, and a great course as well. No shame in being last with no warmup - that's so important. See you at the State Championship!
Thanks again Renee for a great race. Cross Clinic was also very well put together. Like I said I don't know how you do it all ....just keep doing it. We all appreciate your hard work.
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