kirtland park cx

I never heed my own advice. Three weeks ago I decided to wash the mud off my cyclocross bike and hang it up for the season. Several days went by, and in those days I enjoyed the luxuries of a lazy non athletic life catching up on teevee, reading books I've been meaning to read, finally repotting some plants, and spending some much needed time with the g/f. With the exception of the daily jog I had pretty successfully made the transition to being sedentary, and was looking forward to some winter weight gain. However this did not last. By Wednesday of last week I decided that Kirtland Park would be my last hurrah! I didn't have much time in between Wednesday and Sunday to ride, and hadn't been on my bike since Halloween's CX race/alleycat boner-jam-a-thon. So I just focused on running, and decided I'd do the C race and call it quits.
Sunday morning creeps in, and my parents are on the phone with a sudden need to come see me race. I oblige them, and though I was planning on riding to the course, (since I only live a few miles away) they insist on picking me up. I inherently know my Dad will be late, so I preempt this by telling him to show at 10:30 (the C race being at 12); He then silently calls my preemption and rolls up to my apartment at 12:05. Which I can't complain too much about because I knew deep down that I should be doing the B race anyways; though I wouldn't be much of a contender I shouldn't cheat myself of the experience. So we get to the course, and I run over to register while my mom and dad get my bike out and walk it over. My dad is pretty quick to point out that not only do I have the muddiest bike at the race its most likely to oldest, and least geared. I insisted that I prefered the spartan single speed to the complexity of gear-tastrophe shifter, and then made a rather honest joke about not being able to afford that kind of set up anyways. This was then demonstrated almost case in point by comparing a nearby junior's cx bike that was for sale for $300, to my centurion tourer which I bought for $40 and "upgraded" it with a cheap ass pair of ritchey cx tires. I then warned my parents that this race was most likely going to resemble the races of my highschool cross country days where I was consistently in an all out battle not to finish last.

Lets skip to the race. It went pretty well, I didn't bonk in this as I had in the spin race, and I didn't wreck like in PA, and I didn't toss my chain like a Wendy park, but I was by no means quick. I think I benefited largely from the three potential run ups two of them stair cases, and the third was the terrace short double hill which I would ride of the first half but the second part included a short climb and a left hand turn, which were beyond my caliber. None the less the jogging had proved to be beneficial and it was in these areas where I many times dismounted and made my way up a place or two. On the final lap of the race I decided it was do or die time so after the final harrowing east end descent I kicked it in to the highest spin rpm I could manage and held that as long as possible. Unfortunately I think I caught more A class racers who were warming up then B class finishers. This overdrive sprint took my stomach for a whirl where I shortly after finishing proceeded to paint the ground with my breakfast. All in all, a fun time though. And it was nice to have people there cheering for you.

About thirty minutes after the B race I was sitting with Jay Karp. on a bench watching the A's mercilessly tear up the course which had not-so-long-ago given me a reaming. Mesmerized by their speed I whimsically stated that next year I would buy a license and next year I'd train every day instead of twice a week, and next year I'd race the whole series, and next year I'd get a real bike. Dan Polito. was quick to respond with "What do you mean? you already have a real f*in' bike!"



other notes: Turns out my parents know someone on the bike authority team, I can't remember her name but seems like she had something to do with coordinating the race.

and I took 10th place. a season best