Race weekend

This weekend was a pair of cyclocross races in Fayetteville, TN, which is about 5 miles from the AL line. Small fields of racers (9 on Sat and Sun). Either way, Bec went down with me on Sat and took video, which I'll post someday or show on a computer when we see you. I finished 7th of 8 on Sat and 8th of 9 on Sunday. Small fields, but the fast guys showed up. I never got lapped or anything, but had to get my legs to ride hard for 30 min. Tough to do when you haven't raced all year and I was off the bike most of Sept.

Saturday highlight was chasing down my teammate (Don) in the race with 1/2 lap left. I knew he was suffering, so I caught him, passed him, put 10m between us going into the "sandpit" which is a deep pile of sand. 3 of the 4 times through the sand to this point I made it out on the bike without getting bogged down and having to dismount. I knew I had to get through the sand on the bike and I could hold Don off. I, predictably, almost crashed in the sand. Had to run out and of course Don was right on me. After the sand, we had ~120m to go to a 180 turn and sprint to the line. I ride as hard as I could and got a 5 m gap on Don at the turnaround. We sprinted our hearts out (Don almost threw his up) and I swear that finish line was a mile away. Don slowly pulled closer to me, we were going all out, threw our bikes forward on the line, and the officials say he nipped me at the line. I don't know. I was too far in oxygen debt to look. I didn't know we were fighting to not be last. I dind't care. We had an absolute blast in this race. It was probably the most fun I've had on the bike, ever. Neither of us cared who won. It was pure fun at its best. Bec had the camera going, but didn't get the finish.

Sunday's race was less eventful as Bec stayed home and studied cancer stuff for a test. The race was fun again as I tried to chase a different teammate down at the end, but couldn't. At least other teammates that weren't in our race and friends were cheering me on, yelling things about "doing it for the birds," and "searching for a big woodpecker." Made me ride harder, if not just made me a little irritated. The motivation tactic worked. I felt better on the bike and did better in some aspects of the race I wanted to improve on, like getting a better warmup, riding super hard at the start and not getting dropped for a lap, cornering better, taking more risks on corners (being more aggressive), etc., however I didn't really improve on my finish position. I have to remember that most of the guys in our race have been racing all year, have coaches, train right, and are in a lot better shape then me. I have fun, so who cares.

After Sunday's race I moved some plants and put in the arborvitae that I got to replace the holly's. Now I'm tired!

Go Phil's!!!