Sunday morning was not windy, but it was still COLD. And gray. A great day for a 'cross race - all we needed was some of the snow that was forecast for later in the day ;) . It was really tough getting warmed up for the race. I donned my now familiar warmup gear of down jacket and blue jeans to take a lap of the [frozen] course. Great course despite the absence of "the rock" from last year - lots of tight turns, and some really fast sections. Woohoo!
Only 4 women had pre-reg'd for the Elite race, so the promoters ran us with the Juniors and B Women. Of course, day of saw some of the big guns coming out making 9 all together.
Since there were ONLY 9 of us, we all lined up beside each other. This caused me some panic as I wasn't sure how I was going to avoid catching bars with the riders on either side of me when the whistle blew. This lack of confidence cost me on the start, as I was the LAST person onto the field. Yup - DFL AGAIN. Will I ever learn????
I decided, since I was behind Karen (whom I've never been able to beat in a race), that I would hang onto her wheel. She starts slow, but will put in big efforts to catch the group in front. When she went around my teammate, I went with her. I stuck to her wheel like glue for the first lap and a half. Then, in the woods, she slowed and I went around. That was the end of her race - she dropped out saying she couldn't feel her fingers (did I mention it was cold?). I could see the group ahead of me, and DH said it was 30 seconds. Sounds reasonable, but it was insurrmountable, and their lead grew as we continued on.
As the race progressed, I could see the leaders of the 3/4 race making time on me, and I worked really hard to hold them off for as long as possible. I managed to hold the eventual 3/4 winner off until the barriers on the 5th lap, where she finally passed me. But, I passed her back as she slowed in the woods. She eventually caught me, and then the 2nd place woman passed me as well. I hung with both of them in the final lap until they got a gap, and were gone.
I have to say, it was deflating to be passed by the 3/4 leaders as I was racing in the ELITE race. Really made me question what the heck I was doing... The rest of the 3/4 women also did well, and looked like they were having a fun (but cold) time. Congrats to both Wavedancer and Voodoo Sally (who missed the start of her race and still finished 10th!).
In the end, I finished 7th (of 9). Not too bad. Not last, and not lapped. This was the last race for me until Nationals though, and I am VERY excited about that!
Kudos to the good folks at MRC for putting on a fine race! I am finally warmed back up. And we did get some snow overnight - about 4 inches. Supposed to mostly rain today though with snow showers through the week. I guess winter is finally arriving!
SheFly
