True.

After I visit CT, I always feel the need to post something that reflects my political point of view and makes me feel better.

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Racing at Canton

This past weekend was the Canton Cup cross race. Canton is the first place I ever raced cx and perhaps because of that, is one of my favorite courses, despite all the grass. Last year, I had Frank tagging along. This weekend, I convinced both S and PFFC to come down to Canton with me although I couldn't convince them to race. Perhaps I could persuade them if they changed the rules requiring riders to chug a beer at each barrier.

The course starts with a slight uphill road with a right turn onto double-track dirt. Then you pop out onto snaky turns on grassy fields, tiny bit of single-track, a curvy asphalt path through the woods, more grass with a few 180 degree turns, 3/4 of a lap around a running track (with a nice rubber surface). There were three sets of barriers (two seemed super high) and one short run-ups. The day itself was chilly, around 45 or so, I think. Cloudy and somewhat windy in spots on the course.

Since the start is similar to Gloucester, I went with Cris' suggestion of starting in the big ring and that worked well. I had a decent start (after watching the mens cat 4 carnage 10 sec into their start) and headed into the first twisty, grass turns pretty fast. So fast that I had to brake pretty hard to avoid a slower rider negotiating a turn which caused someone to buzz my tire and go down. (Sorry about that, fallen rider!). I fell off the leaders around the first barriers and as we hit the curvy asphalt path, Michele from ECV prodded me to pick it up and go catch them. Picked up the pace and pulled Michele with me. Loved the feeling of zipping down that curvy path, taking the turns relatively fast and remembering watching women wipe out on those turns last year. Thankfully, no wet leaves this year which made it easier to push the pace. Anyway, we almost had caught up to the leaders until we hit that little uphill dirt off the path where the rider in front of us jumped off and forced us off our bikes. Michele then made a move near the second set of barriers and was gone. I couldn't catch her the rest of the race. With her gone, I focused on trying to catch Giulia (IBC) and a Cambridge Bicycle rider for the remaining three laps. By the third lap, I was starting to pass some of the cat 4 men. On the last lap, I finally caught Giulia by the first barriers. The three of us kept changing position. By the time we hit the asphalt path, I was behind the Cambridge rider and letting her do the work. By the turn before the last set of barriers, I was behind both Giulia and the Cambridge rider, they slowed for the turn around the tree, I punched it to get in front. Was over the barriers first but lost them after the barriers. On the uphill sprint to the finish, I managed to catch and beat the Cambridge rider but couldn't catch Giulia. Totally fun race. Nice to be racing instead of merely surviving. :) Came in 14th of 38 starters.

Finished up with some pumpkin ales (yum) while we watch Jorge's race and people-watched the other riders. Never got to the see the results (which resulted in the fiasco described in the previous post.) Thankfully, after exchanging emails with the race director, it looks like the results will be corrected and reposted. Whew. I feel better now. :)

'Cross Results Suck. Big Time.

Just how many ways can they get it wrong? Even a highly regarded race like Gloucester or the National Championships can't seem to do it right. Lapped riders being recorded higher than those who lapped them, some riders just missing in the results, and now my own personal favorite, two people assigned to the same number (see #602 in the results below). I will write a better race report about Canton once I chill a bit but damn, how disappointing is it to actually ride one of our best races of the season, out sprint someone at the line and then to look at the results and be listed as a DNF. I'm so f*&^%$#ing pissed. (And yes, I probably should have stayed until results were posted. I did check about 45 min after the race and didn't see them, was freezing my bruised butt off and decided I'd rather go home.) It's a good thing I love racing 'cx so much because otherwise I'd be taking my weekly $25 entrance fee and going to do a running race where I get accurate results (including split times), lots of post race goodies and a technical fabric long sleeve shirt. I know the officials are doing the best they can with a really difficult task but it's now the norm that the results are wrong. Someone REALLY needs to figure out how to get accurate results done for cx races.

Ow...My Ass!

Just call me hematoma girl. ;-) This is what happens when you do this. Damn that snow fence post!

Run-Up From Hell

Even though they're hard and I don't feel like I'm particularly good at them, I like run-ups. Kind of mixes things up. Here's the Elite Women doing the Gloucester run-up this past weekend. I'm trying to imagine what that would have been like in the rain. Even more fun, I suppose, if the officials would have allowed it. :)

Racing Until My Legs Fall Off

Since a few important meetings for Columbus Day were canceled, I opted to take the day as PTO and turn the New England Worlds weekend into a long one. And that meant one extra day to race.

It used to be that as the leaves started to turn here in Boston, I began to get more excited as my goal races came up on the horizon. At the time, those races were the Bench & Run (love that one!), Tufts 10k, BAA Half Marathon, Applefest, Baystate Marathon, NYC Marathon, Feaster Five, or Manchester on Thanksgiving. The list changed every year depending on whether I had aspirations of qualifying for Boston, trying to get a new half marathon PR or simply trying to work off all the apple pies I eat in the fall.

The list of races is so different these days: Gloucester, Canton Cup, Northampton, Wrentham, Sterling. And I find myself so torn. I honestly miss running. But I love 'cross. ~sigh. And if this weekend is any indication, it's freaking hard to do both. (Unless you're Libby. Ah, to be 14 again. :) )But dammit - it was a three day weekend, and I was going to race all three days.

Gloucester Day 1
First up, was the New England Worlds (a.k.a. Gloucester GP). Stealing from Cathy's beautiful summary on the NEBC site, the course was as follows:

The course layout was the same as last year’s Gloucester races. Uphill pavement start onto a slightly downhill dirt section with some tight turns, onto the seawall where we picked up speed, up a rocky incline to a grassy section leading into the first small uphill of the course. From there, we continued in the grass into the barrier chicanes, and into a wicked fast downhill grass section, past the pit, and onto the second (and windy) seawall. A hard push sent us into some tight, twisty turns on the grass before dumping racers into the playground sand section, complete with a hairpin turn! Sprinting out of the sand brought everyone to the up/down twists of the final chicanes, before heading back onto the road.

Sunday’s weather was a repeat of Saturday – clear, sunny skies and warm temps.

Kudos to the course staff for the changes they made between Saturday’s races and Sunday. While the start of the race was the same, Sunday brought a huge, loose run-up off of the seawall from a 90 degree right hand turn! That run up hurt every time. From here, we rode past the upper playground, around a very loose (sandy, rocky) right hand turn, back onto the grass and into an off camber approach to the barriers. This new approach was rutted and bumpy, and required some good cornering skills. The seond half of the course, with a few changes to the grass chicane section and a different approach to the sand, remained pretty much the same as Saturday.

I had volunteered to work registration for Saturday so I arrived pretty early - so early, in fact, that I was lucky enough to witness a gorgeous sunrise. Working registration was fun - actually got to put some faces to some names in the mens fields which was great. Took off at 10am to my race prep and warm up.

Goals for the race: ride smoothly, save enough for the a good last lap and try to finish in the top 50% of riders. The race went pretty much according to plan. I had a third row start and passed quite a few riders up the hill before we hit the dirt. (Thanks to Cris for reminding me to start in the big ring. Felt like I had a rocket pushing me past many of the riders.) The sand pit was the low point in my race. In retrospect, I should have simply gotten off and ran but it just LOOKED so rideable. And it probably was if I had been TT-ing it out there. Whole different story with others in front of you. On the third lap, as I was running with the bike shouldered, I was passed by one of the juniors whose bike got tangled with mine. Took us a bit to get our bikes untangled. On the fourth (last lap), I was feeling like I had enough left to make a serious effort at passing a group of three riders in front of me. Unfortunately, I biffed it big time in the sand pit and lost enough time that I couldn't catch them. Geoff Martin even got a great shot of me sitting on my butt in the sand with the bike on top of me. ~sigh Still managed to have a great time.

Gloucester Day 2
Saturday night we had a small dinner party - not the best pre-race dinner especially considering the number of glasses of wine I consumed. But at least I didn't need to be up there at the crack of dawn Sunday morning. Walked the course with Janet and Kathy to check out the addition of the run-up and the other resulting course changes. Nice to have someone to talk over the course with and bounce ideas off of.

Goals for race: place higher than the day before, deal with the sand pit better, smile on the run-up. :) Not sure if it was the fact that I had to host a dinner party Saturday night, ate too much, drank way too much wine, etc., etc, or the run-up from hell but Sunday's race felt a WHOLE lot harder. Again, had a third row start and got stuck behind a rider who couldn't clip in. Grrr..... Next, on the first little uphill grass section, I saw Libby and another rider down. (I heard later that the other rider had pretty much intentionally taken her out. So NOT cool.) Had to carefully maneuver around them. I tried to just settle in for the next few laps and sit on a wheel on the long, straight grassy sections, the road, etc. On the fourth lap, I decided that I really wanted to be ahead of the woman in front of me and made the whole goal of the lap to finish ahead of her. Went into the run-up together but I beat her to the top which give me a little bit of a spurt. Tried accelerating more coming out of each turn and transition in order to put a little more distance between us. Ended up finishing ahead of her by 15 sec or so.

All in all, I was pretty happy with the results. Next year, I need to finally reach my goal for being in the top 50% of the riders. Was almost there but not quite. The weather was spectacular, the cheering fans even more so. And I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out in the beer garden following Sunday's race.

Tufts 10k
Having not run a 10k in recent memory (a year? more?), I had no goals for this race other than to simply have fun. S had to attend the AAP conference which was being held in Boston this year and so had a room at the Copley Marriott. Playing tourist, I stayed there Sunday night, got up early and jogged over to the Common to number pickup. Loved being on the streets of Boston in the early morning. I sometimes forget just how beautiful this city is. Without the crowds and traffic and with the gorgeous weather, it was super relaxing to be out running down the middle of Comm Ave, across the Public Garden, etc.

Lined up for the start with 7,000 other women on Beacon St. Having done this race more times than I can remember, the course is burned into memory. Down the Beacon St. hill, right onto Charles St, up over the Longfellow Bridge, down onto Memorial Drive, past MIT up to the BU Bridge, back down Mem Drive past the Mass Ave bridge a ways, then another U-turn back to the Mass Ave bridge, down Mass Ave to a left on Comm Ave, right on Arlington, left on Boylston, then left to the finish line between the Public Garden and the Common.

I vowed before the start that I wouldn't look at my splits. After all, I knew Joannie would beat me again so what was the point? ;-) At the gun, we surged down Beacon St and then got all clumped up at the turn onto Charles. It wasn't until we headed under the Longfellow Bridge on Mem Drive about a mile into the race that I wasn't zigzagging my way through crowds and could run freely. As we were cruising up Mem Drive we saw the the leaders coming back at us on the other side (one of my favorite parts of doing this course) and I still marvel at how fast and effortless they look. Simply amazing.

As we turned onto the Mass Ave bridge, I felt a bit of a headwind and memories of running that bridge in all kinds of weather came flooding back. Training for Boston one January, we had winds on that bridge that were killer. Times like that it helps to have training partners and mine at the time was "B.A.A. Phil". A clydesdale runner, an in-shape, 6'6" 250lb guy that was great to tuck in behind in winds like that. He was my wind shield for 18 miles around the river that day.

The left turn onto Comm Ave always reminds me of the marathon course. One year, I met S on Heartbreak Hill to pace her the last 7 miles to the finish line. As we left Kenmore Square behind and crossed Mass Ave, I could tell she was ready to be done. I picked up the chatter, "Ok, we just crossed Mass Ave! Just have to go one block for the right onto Hereford! Come on! Almost there!" and then I panicked, thinking to myself, "the next right is Hereford, right? Crap! Hope I didn't just tell her the wrong thing!" The last thing you want to tell a marathon runner in the last mile is incorrect course stuff. But yeah, I was right. We turned onto Hereford, then I left her for the turn onto Boylston. No way I was running down that stretch - that's reserved for people who've earned the whole thing. Even the last turn in Central Park for the NYC Marathon can't compare to making that turn down Boylston. It is simultaneously the hugest rush and greatest relief.

As I nodded to the Hereford St. sign and continued down Comm Ave, I hit the mile to go marker for my race and started counting the blocks. It helps that the streets are alphabetical in the Back Bay, Gloucester, Fairfield, Exeter, Dartmouth, Clarendon.... As I turned down Charles St., I reminded myself that the finish line was still a quarter mile away and tried not to sprint it in too early. And there, waiting, since she beat me again by a good 15 min, was Joan Benoit. You start to understand just how old you are when you realize that all the young women in the race have no idea who that woman standing there congratulating runners is and you're heading over to shake her hand and perhaps get a picture with her.

And apparently, I was so swift crossing the finish line that S didn't see me. So no pic with Joanie. But we did have an awesome lunch on Charles St after the race. Felt great to have all three races of the weekend completed. I think I'm going to make it an annual event.

A Mojo For the Tsunami

Bumble, the Abomidable Snowman from Rudolph, has always been one of my favorite characters and in fact, I have a finger puppet that I consider my lucky charm. I always thought I'd like to tape him to my handlebars but he'd never survive the mud, yuck and nastiness that would end up coating him. And then, I happened to come across a hard, plastic version at Urban Outfitters this weekend. Happiness! Hopefully, there will be lots of riders behind me staring at him and wondering, "WTF?"

Good-Bye Fat A$$, Hello Subaru!

One of the great perks of S's job is the free car: free gas, free insurance, free monthly detailing. The first car we were given was a Chrysler Pacifica (a.k.a. The Fat A$$). We both hated that car. Despite being AWD, it sucked in the snow, was too huge, and had no pickup. About the only thing I could say about it (other than it was free - don't look a gift horse in the mouth) was it was fairly comfortable on a long drive. And, since we didn't really care that much about it, we simply put our bikes inside the car.

We finally drove the Fat A$$ off into the sunset a couple of weeks ago. It's been replaced by a Subara Tribeca. Personally, I'd prefer the Legacy Outback station wagon (had one of those a few years back and it truly rocked). I spent this past weekend putting a new Thule rack on the new Subaru. S "stickered" the car (but right now it has more surfing stickers rather than cycling). It also made it to its first 'cross race. After driving it about 500 miles now, I can say I do like it much better than the Fat A$$. Handles way better, better acceleration and the butt warmers get extremely toasty. Guess we'll find out in a few months how it handles the snowy roads.

Peeing My Pants

I have absolutely no idea why but I saw the following skit on SNL and it just kills me. Given the current state of affairs in the world, it feels really good to laugh - even if it means I pee my pants. ;-)