My First Race

[wavedancer]

As my BF said, I had a "deer-in-the-headlights" look when we first arrived to the race at the Coonamessett Farm, but I soon got into the excitement and fun of it all as I pre-rode the course on my mountain bike. My spirits got even more lifted when I saw some friendly faces and chatted with SheFly and Voodoo Sally.

It was a perfect day, sunny, warm...not your usual New England cross season weather, which was fine for me! The beginner women's race was only a 20-minute+ race, which was also perfect for my first time out.

I was very glad I stuck with my mountain bike (good advice from SheFly) because it was evidently more of a mountain-bike-like course than a traditional cross course. The beginner men headed out first, then the beginner women (eight of us), followed by and quickly passed by the Cub Juniors! After the start up the gravel road the course quickly turned into the woods for some fun swoopy singletrack. Mass gridlock occurred on the first lap as we had to squeeze onto a narrow trail with two 90-degree turns around a paddock fence. Everyone got off their bikes to do this part of the trail and the pace slowed down to a crawl.

Things picked up again through some more single track and then to a dismount and run up a steep, loose dirt embankment. I went back later in the day and that embankment had become packed down and riders were mostly riding up and over it without any problems. There was some more single track around some fields, a long loose descent with a turn at the bottom, up and down the blueberry rows, a sand pit and run-up. The two barriers were in a gravel pit in the middle of the beer tent with an audience to show off my hobbling over the barriers and feeble remounting skills!

My only fall occurred when I missed a turn into one of the blueberry rows. Don't know why, just didn't turn the handlebars and toppled over to avoid hitting the enthusiastic spectator banging on a pan!

It was great to have my own cheering fans at different places on the course. SheFly giving me a boost and shouts, a surprise visit from a friend in my local cycling club, and my dear BF cheering me on kept the grin on my face when I was ready to stop and pass out. The race was just three laps of the course, which was about all I could do, but what a blast! Yes, I think I've been bit by the bug