Townhall CX 2017
Keeping this one short, because, well,
my race was short.
In my mission to be a 300% less shitty boyfriend this CX season I'm trying to find every opportunity to try and include Maureen in my plans. Part one of this was building her a bike that fits (and is cool). She's not quite to the point where she's at all into the idea of pinning a number and bike racing but Townhall had a 5k foot race thrown in which she dabbles in on her own. Home-girl agreed to race if I reg'd her
so I did!
Interestingly enough BikeReg required a USAC number to reg her. Well, that seemed like hogwash being as it's a foot race so I went ahead and used my number which tied her name into my Cross Results points and seeded her to finish 1st in the 5K.
NO PRESSURE MOE!
Oh, I took the liberty of making up a team name. P/B LDBCX, of course.
Anyway, we arrived around 11:30, scooped a number and I pinned her while catching up with
@1sh0t1b33r @MissJR and
@Santapez. One thing I firmly believe in is pinning numbers for your teammates. As I'm in this sport longer I realize there is a bit of pretension around "pinning yourself." I think it's a load or malarkey. Pinning is a nice quite moment meant to be spent with a friend. Nothing soothes the nerves like pinning banter. SO YES, I pinned my GF's 5k number, maybe a little crooked, on the front of her shirt, as prescribed.
Saturday was blisteringly hot but Moe crushed it coming out in 2nd of the 3 women. She said each of the two men she ran near complained about their injuries to her. Is that a runner thing? Or a "you're only beating me because of X," thing?
She dusted the one guy, but the second forced through his hamstring issue.
and I know you're wondering "Did the 5K do the barriers???"
THEY SURE DID!! One of the leaders actually kicked the first one on lap 1. Earned him a heckle. On that Moe also commented that she's never been heckled racing before. I guess most foot races people aren't out yelling at you too much. She enjoyed her experience of being heckled which I think speaks well for our little community of CX crazies.
My day.
Ohhh boyyyyy. I think I caught that Nittany cold, and I thought I battled it off midweek but maybe something was still lingering. Or maybe I was still not fully recovered from 2 days of vicious efforts last weekend and my first VO2 workout on Wednesday.
Whatever it was from Lap 1 something felt wrong. I felt cool pre-riding but the race effort was off. The field this year was about 20 people but was maybe 15 people faster than last year. Every dude that showed up was a ringer. I pushed best I could for 3 laps but damn was I dying in the heat. I started lap 4 thinking "I don't know if I can do this."
Dan was right ahead of me so I had a carrot to chase. I caught him and we chatted for a few. Dan pulled out at the end of that lap. I was playing the "one more lap" game and on my second (5th total) when I finally cracked. Somewhere between the heat, and my inability to recover from any efforts concerned me. Bryan B was hot on my tail so I spent my last lap pushing trying to keep away making the best of my time on course but ultimately felt like something was terribly wrong. He passed me after the line and I pulled into the pit and declared my DNF.
DNF. D N F. DNFF. Did Not F'ing Finish.
Me? Yeah. This was my first DNF since 2013 Charm city when I flatted on the 2nd lap without neutral support, pit wheels, a tube or pump available. That makes this my first DNF in 103 or so races where I just simply pulled myself from the race.
I suffered through SSNatz Hell 2017, I ran a lap and a half at NBX 2015, I raced 3 races at Marty CX 2015, but Saturday was too much. Everything aligned like a perfect storm of suck. SO I PULLED OUT.
And honestly, I don't even really care. I'm happy I didn't hurt myself, I still got 37 minutes of intensity which is at least a long Cat 4 race and I had a giant plate of fried squid to sooth my soul later that evening.
In other news a buddy put together a project for the season revolving around documenting his racing in the Scrub Zone. Chris will be recapping races, documenting his experiences and having friends jump on to do the same. Before Nittany he asked a few of use to explain in our words what the Scrub Zone is and grabbed some shots of each of us. The launch looks pretty sweet, peep it here and follow along this season! I've been racing against/heckling most of these guys for 5 years.
www.thescrubzone.com
