Brockton - City of Champions Cross Race

[blueskies]

Shefly - I love reading your race reports. Thanks for posting them...

[Voodoo Sally]

I did this race. It was really hard for me, and I got DFL! Well, a lady (way in front of me) got a flat and quit, so technically she got last. I got 8th place out of 9. But, it wasn't bad experience by any means. This is the 3rd year of this race, and the 3rd time I've done it. The last 2 years there were only 2 women in the field, so 9 is a big improvement.

I actually had a great start for a change. Yay. And I got up & over that 1st barrier in a flash. But then, it was like a road race, and I got utterly hosed. I have never road raced, or trained for that. I'm guessing the other gals in the race were road racers to some extent. Within the first half lap, I was in last place. There was one lady, however, who was just maybe 10 seconds ahead of me the whole time, so I wasn't lonely, or too dejected. I just focused on trying to get her and tried my best.

[trigirlpink]

Good for you for sticking it out and in the rain no less. We can only get better by racing more I'm hoping!! I have a family obligation this entire weekend so can't do North Hampton like I wanted to. I have yet to get back to one of the courses I did last year to compare at least how I feel on the course this season. Amsbury,Bedford Gloucester, Biddeford and Canton were all new courses for me this year.
Has anyone done either of the Plymouth MA races that are going on next weekend? I'd love to hear what they are like before signing up for one or both.

[SheFly]

Nice job, Sally! You are right - most of the lead women are also pretty strong road racers. There were a couple of good sections where I'm sure that you did really well, and they faltered (like the tight turns and that TREE!). Nice job.

Trigirlpink - Plymouth last year was a BLAST! The second day this year is brand new, so I can't comment on it. Here is my description of the Saturday course from last year:

I really liked the course - lots of tight, twisty turns, some boggy grass sections (that were pretty fast), an awesome downhill singletrack (with off-camber, slippery root directly before hard left turn...), a section of sidewalk and then back into grassy ups and downs. There were two big run-ups and two barriers (no, not sets, two barriers - cross single barrier on grass, make some turns and come back across single barrier going in opposite direction (in the other lane)). The hardest part for me was not being able to clip into my pedals after the fun up - cleats were packed with mud (ok, there was some mud - but NOTHING like last week...).

It is a little bit technical, but if you come over and practice on Thursday, you should be fine!

SheFly

[Voodoo Sally]

Thanks trigirlpink and SheFly. Yeah, the rain certainly wasn't my favorite part, but otherwise it was good.

I can't do any races this weekend either - family stuff too.

Plymouth? That's one of my favorites. It's pretty grassy, and somewhat technical, and kind of hilly. And there is that little bit of downhill singletrack in the woods, like mt. biking. I'm talking about what they're calling "North" (Saturday) Plymouth. And don't forget to try to get some air off of that board going up the curb . Like SheFly said, the "South" version is new, so nobody knows.