All races hurt.  Some hurt more than others.  Some make you feel like you are literally about to fall over and die and those are the races when 45 minutes seems like a really long time.  Those are the races during which you say things like this sport is stupid and I am NEVER DOING IT AGAIN!!!

For some reason those are also the races that (after I am semi-recovered) leave me smiling from ear to ear and thinking holy shit, that was fun!!

(See?  Don’t I LOOK happy?!)

Today was one of those days.  That snow we got last weekend?  Its STILL melting.  And the course was muddy.  Not the kind of mud that sends you sliding all over the place but the kind of mud that gets really really thick and makes every pedal stroke take about ten times more effort than it would in any other conditions.  I don’t have the best fitness in the world at the moment (altho I will say that I AM in better shape than I was at the beginning of the season, so that’s something!) and these are the days that it REALLY shows.  Leg strength?  Core strength?  I don’t much have it.

The mud looked like this …

… and this …

… Nothing too tricky, just THICK.  The kind of thick that made every single part of the course feel like it was uphill.  Seriously, how does that even happen?  There was NO place to recover because even the downhill sections were slooooooow thanks to the gloppy mess.  And the ENTIRE course was like this.  No pavement in sight.

Long story short, I think I ended up beating TWO girls and the girl in front of me wasn’t THAT far in front of me.  Still nothing stellar but there were moments of relative brilliance, like when I took the sketchy mud infested line up a steep section to pass a girl on a climb.  So, ok, maybe she was on a mountain bike.  Still, not the point.  The point is that I’m riding more confidently and more aggressively and I’m fading less in the middle of the race and that definitely counts for something.

I’m convinced that this is the real reason I had a good race today:

(Not only did I have my own pit crew but he was SMOKIN’ HOT too!)

The husband had been battling the death cough for the last couple weeks and decided one race for the weekend was enough.  So he was my sherpa.  He lent me his wheels, carried my crap, and even cleaned my bike.  Do you see why I married him?!

EDITED:  The results are in and once again they are showing me as second to last.  The Women’s Open 35+ starts a minute ahead of us and every weekend some poor soul thinks “I’m 35!  I should race in that group!” only to find out that those women are mostly ex-pro’s.  Twice now I have caught and passed that poor soul.  On one hand, its great.  I caught and passed someone that a whole minute head start on me!  On the other and, it stinks because it doesn’t show up in my results.  Ah well, I still maintain that I am improving.

Lesson learned yesterday:  Cross is a hell of a lot more fun when you actually race it.

When you’re one of the slower riders in a group of only 20 or so women you don’t get to do a whole lot of racing.  I typically do my best to hang on for a lap or two and then I get spat out the back to ride loops by myself in no-man’s land for the next half hour.

Yesterday was different. That’s not to say that I did great or that I even came close to getting into the mid-pack, but still, yesterday was different.  And it totally rocked.

I somehow managed to get a call-up (I guess that’s what happens when you finish 19 out of 20 week in and week out) and got a second row start.  I really need to work on my starts because they are horrid.  The gun went off and once again I was in the back by the time we left the pavement.

We made our way around the course, splashed through the big mud pit and hit the first run up and that was when I decided I was tired of being out there by myself and that I was not going to let these girls beat me.

And that was when it happened:  I passed three girls on a run up.

(Seriously!  Stop the press!!)

One of them passed me back almost immediately but I managed to stay in front of the other two for the rest of the race.  They were close enough that I had to keep busting my ass to stay in front of them and … AND … (this is the best part!!) we were gaining on the girls ahead of us.  Another lap and I think I would have caught at least one of them.

I still ended up finishing second to last (apparently one of the girls I passed on the run up was  35+ woman who started in the group ahead of us - but still, SO NOT THE POINT!!) BUT I wasn’t all that far from third or fourth to last and I was actually racing.

I know that for anyone reading this who is actually halfway decent at cross you are thinking “so?  you got second to last.  big freaking deal.” … but for me it is a big deal.  This wasn’t about not getting DFL (been there, done that).  It was about actually being somewhat in the mix.  It was about finally seeing some improvement.  It gave me hope that maybe next year, when I actually ride my bike in the summer instead of getting married, and buying a house, and getting a puppy, and climbing 14ers I might actually be halfway decent at this cross thing.  Or at least break into the mid-pack.

And just to quickly bring it up to the present ….

Two weekends ago, Boulder Rez.  Kicked my ass.  Terrible start.  Last onto the dirt.  Half mile of SAND per lap.  And a blizzard.

DFL.  I would say that I had a good time but I’m not sure that I did.  I prefer actually riding my bike to running with it on sand, but whatever.  The beer tasted great afterwards!

The snow that fell that day quickly melted but was replaced a few days later by this:

We got around two feet of snow (yes, two feet!) on Wednesday and Thursday of last week.  This was followed by 50 degree temps on Friday.  Can you see where this is going?

Serious cross conditions for the race on Saturday.  Everyone who started after 9 a.m. was caked in mud.  The pros were swapping bikes every half lap lest they not be able to ride at all because there was so much junk clogging things up.  People falling all over.  It was fantastic.

(Katie Compton - #1 in the WORLD, showing how its done)

For those of us who raced BEFORE 9 a.m. the course was still frozen.  Rutted and frozen and miserable.  I was sliding all over the place and ended up off the course in the snow at one point.  My shifter was busted and I was having a hard time pedaling so I only lasted a lap and a half.  Bummer.

Even the girls made an appearance on Saturday …

Sunday was the big Boulder Cup race and I didn’t get to race because there was NO category for amateur women.  Unless you were an elite racer, you had to sit on the sidelines.  (Don’t even get me started …. )

I made the best of the crappy situation by riding from our house out to the Rez and then getting in a few more miles on the gravels.  The weather was great and by the time I made it back to watch the pros I wasn’t too bummed about not getting to race anymore.

During the pro race we mostly hung out in the beer garden, beer in hand, screaming our heads off at the folks who are really good at this.  It was fun.  I just wish I could have been out there.

So there ya have it.  Two weekends full of cross action but not a lot of cross success on my part.  Today it begins again.  I’m shooting for not DFL!