Starcrossed race report

Starcrossed is the first big race of the year here in the Pacific Northwest. Last year's event was my first cross race ever and I was stoked to go back and see how I improved. Last year I finished in 39th out of 53.

I woke up to gray, drizzly weather on Saturday...then went back to sleep 'till 10 (hey, my race was at 2pm so why not?). I kind of procrastinated for the rest of the morning then scrambled at the last minute to get my stuff together and on the road (typical race day routine for me). Once we arrived we moved quickly to put up our tent as the rain was starting to pick up. By that time everything was wet-my bikes, the trainer, some of my clothes...

After picking up my race numbers I headed out to preride the course. Nothing special- it was almost exactly like last year's course. You'd think that they'd at least change up the barriers or something. Oh well. After a wet, mucky lap I headed back to our tent to warm up on the trainer and rock out to some dance music.

So at 2pm we start lining up. Fortunately I preregistered and secured a good spot in the 2nd row. I think there were over 75 racers so I wanted to make sure I got out front and stayed there. Bang! the starting gun fires and off we go. I was 5th onto the course and held a good spot until the end of the lap. Only 3 more to go. Then I started getting passed by those super-fast chicks that started in the back of the pack. The course was SO bumpy and it just beat snot out of me...it didn't help that my tires were overinflated for that kind of terrain. Doh! A spectactor was calling off places as we passed and I was lucky #13 going into the last lap. I traded places with a couple girls as I headed into the finishing stretch. I could hear another racer behind me and took off. I managed to edge her and another racer out to take 12th :)

Overall I'm happy with my finish and feel I've improved a lot since last year. I'm anxious to see what the rest of the season holds!

Nice work!