I don’t know what it is about Halloween weekend that means cross cranks the suffering up to 11. With the past couple years up in Astoria for a mudfest at the Cross Crusade series, this year promised to be drier with a trip down to Santa Cruz for Surf City. Luckily, relatively dry courses can still be painful.
[Did anyone get a picture of me trying to strangle myself with course tape?]
This course featured climbing on pavement, climbing on dirt, 4×4-type barriers, telephone pole-type barriers, standard board-type barriers, a short grass run up (after the boards), a stair run up, and sand all over. Luckily they broke the dirt and pavement climbs up, with a run-up.
Since the race started straight up the pavement climb, being a 215 pounder on this course is not ideal. Basically I hammered it on the climb, proceeded to blow up, and make all the mental mistakes that go along with racing at 180+ bpm. Somehow I got tangled in course tape twice in the first lap, once on a bad line nearly decapitating myself and once trying to pass and catching my lever. Eventually I settled in, but it wasn’t pretty. Initially I was listed as finishing 13th, then 15th, and now 16th officially. Still a respectable finish out of 47 racers. At least I didn’t have any major crashes, which seemed to be the popular ‘tactic’ of the day.
All in all, this race was responsible for my new goal: don’t blow yourself up in the first lap.
I am still working on this goal.
The Beer Gazelle 