race report: Quad 'Cross 2009, Women's P/1/2/3 Race (Spank Me Sunday #3), 13. September 2009

My original race plan was: "one lap of racin', four laps of drinkin'," but I'm pleased to report that during the elite women's race at QuadCX, I actually enjoyed four laps of racing and one lap of drinking. That's right, enjoyed. The course was fantastic this year, and the best thing about the race was being able to ride it again.

I wasn't as nervous for the start of this race as I had been for the earlier one, but once we got going I freaked a little and lost some places on the grass--which is a nice way of saying, I dropped to the back. And tried to catch on. And managed to chase Meg from Hup about half a lap, then lost her and was racing in DFL.

So in short: it hurrrrrrrt. Still, it was fun despite (or maybe because of?) the pain. A bunch of my friends cheered for me, including my roadie teammates; they must be catching the CX bug because they kept yelling "beer beer beer!" at me from various parts of the course.

Speaking of, about a minute or two after Mo Roy and Anna Barensfeld lapped me, I Henny-thugged it in the single barrier section. The resultant burning in my stomach distracted my mind from the pain in my legs for the final lap, and though I got lapped by a few more women, I managed to hold the last one off at the final climb. Yay! My guts felt absolutely wretched afterward, but I'm glad I survived a double day. I plan to do a few 1/2/3 races later in the season, and hopefully won't get lapped if I have fresh legs!

I finished at -1, but one of the MRC elite racers rolled a tubular, so I am listed ahead of her in the results! Muahaha. That'll probably never happen again.