Women's 3/4 Race
Course Highlights - a lot of running, some steep hills, and otherwise fast grass sections
Stats - 15 finishers Saturday, 13 finishers Sunday w/ 3 HZ/PBR women (Caitlin, Ali, and Bianca)
That means, on Sunday the HZ/PBR women comprised 23% of the field!
Weather -Sunny!!! Overall, it was chilly to warm up, great to race, with a nice ending of a little cold weather post-race hack
Here's the the DL (down-low/low-down/whatever you want to call it)
Day 1 - After getting a relatively good position onto the course (behind the super-fast girls, in front of others), the race started off well. I got behind Ali and kept her line for a while. Despite a few "yard sale" moves, she managed to get even farther ahead of me. Her style points proved worthy, and she finished 9th. Caitlin put her mountain bike skills to work - making it over a steep mound every time without getting off thus propelling her ahead of others, and into 7th place. My less-than stellar technical skills required me to run more than others, and after 5 1/2 laps, I managed to not get lapped and finished 10th. Did I want to get lapped? Kind of. It was a long, hard race, but a lot of fun!
Day 2 - The course was in reverse. There was more running, but fewer laps. Ali, Caitlin and I got good starts, and were close together throughout the first 2 or so laps. I got to throw some elbows and block for them while running which was fun, and having 2 good lines to follow was beneficial for me. I managed to fall farther behind Caitlin and Ali, though, when I ate it over the barriers (see photo). All of us finished together well, with Ali in 6th, Caitlin in 7th, and me in 8th.
All in all, the weekend was a blast (except for having to study). It was the last race of the season for me, and a good one to end with. Though my travels this past summer didn't help me get any faster, cyclocross was still a lot of fun. Its been a lot of fun having so many HZ women on the starting lines, and hopefully the year to come will be just as fun!
