Elaine’s Race Report
Cross Crusade #3 Sherwood, Oregon
Women’s Masters A 35+ 14th Place!
It rained and rained and rained the day before, just as forecasted. I bought a brand new set of mud tires, the CX version of the tires on my mt bike that I love so much, Specialized The Captains. Whoo hoo. I spent a muddy Saturday with Anne and Tim and Sage and Sarah and a few others at Alpenrose playing and testing air pressures…
Sunday. Somehow the course remained dry and bumpy, with just a few token muddy corners and pop-ups. But what a course! Twisty turns, flying crazy bumpy downhills, even a little log!! Well, a big stick. Yay! Did some mt biker make this course? If so Bravo!!!!
A great warm up on my trainer, all that is working much better this week. Plus the weather is nice and sunny warm. Also, yay. I get to strip off layers.
I’m low on points so I start toward the back. I still rate a call-up, but just barely. These back starts are driving me nuts. I get a good drive then have to check up because there’s too much traffic going every which way. Drive, check up. Repeat, about four times. We string out into the singletrack part, I’m LASSTTTT!
But that first part is a bumpy downhill so I get to pick off a few people. Then a few more through some fun muddy corners. My tires hold true… a couple more up a muddy hill. Then down a short fast bumpy chute to a double barricaded creek crossing, crap, I come in a little fast, jump off and totally miss my grab for the bike. A couple people pass me back. This happens two laps in a row, you’d think I’d figure it out.
Uphill back to the start/finish. What a fun course. I go back and forth with 3 or 4 people. I pass on technical parts, they’d get me back on the big uphill. But I didn’t give up, and most of those passes finally stuck. By Lap 3 I get around as many lappers as I could, there were 300 women on course at the same time. So many Sorellas! Sorry the bumps were too much, I couldn’t say hi to everyone. Zan looking great, Birch, looking strong on her mt bike, Lynne I think, Anne---hey, why are you running!
Somebody passed me on the hill at the very end, Karen I think, one who I’d been passing back and forth.
Good job Rhonda, Kim, Eileen, Sarah, Shari, Sage, Tracy (holy cow, your warmup was a half marathon! Good job even showing up!) Tessa, Christine… I know I’m forgetting a lot of people who raced… Mark, Brice, Shelli, Tim, Jeff, and everyone for cheering and hollering, what a fan section we get. I don’t think there was a stretch longer than 100 yards that there wasn’t someone cheering for us all.
I’ve never felt so good about a 14th place finish. Out of 23. Splitting Karen and Patty who came in 15th is something I’m proud of. I raced hard, I loved the course, I made a bunch of mistakes so there’s always room for improvement. See you all next week! Yay!
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