[GW] B3 MN State CX race

[Lee Penn]

Good morning rodents!

What a fantastic CX season!  I'm just absolutely THRILLED with my results and improvements.  I had loads and loads of fun, thanks to many other cx rodents (Gaines brothers and their awesome parents, Sara, Bill, Dan, Sue, Lynne, Sherry (even though she doesn't race cx), Rich, and Tracy-who-will-race-cx-next-year) both in racing and in practice at Minnehaha Falls.  My CX experience began in September with the boom island training series. My first race was at Lake Rebecca on Oct 7.  Six weeks later, my racing season of seven c races and two b races has ended all too soon.  I have to say that cx racing is loads and loads of fun - absurdly fun - and I am already looking forward to next year! 

MN State Champs:  One would normally beging with "I toed the line with X number of racers".... but I was riding about rather clueless about the ACTUAL location of the start (post-travel-brain-fog?)...Tracy Bergemann, who rode to the race with me, was yelling at me to get over to the start...  I rode up the incline only to see the men's field was off!  Oops.  I rode down the road - the women's field came up the dirt road.  After the last women passed me, I jumped onto the back of the race - about 50-75 meters from the start line.  Man - I was wondering if I would get DQ-ed for that.  Anyway, I wasn't feeling too much pressure with this - my first real foray into the b-field - race.  I just wanted to race hard and see how I would do.  I wasn't feel all that great due to business travel that had me landing in Minneapolis at 6a the day before....  Ugh.  In other words, I had a great excuse if I had a terrible race! 

After lap one, I passed Jessica.  Later, I passed a woman I don't know and Amber - both on the grassy section near the finish.  I was sorely tempted by the whiskey shots at the second set of barriers, but after passing Amber, I really wanted to hang on to my position in the field, so I refrained....  I loved the flat sections of grass, gravel, and asphalt, where I could really hammer...  That right-hand turn down on the 180 section was HARD for me.  I ended up planting my foot every time during the race (and getting heckled for it).  During the pre-ride, I had WALKED up the run-up four or five times total.  During the RACE- I ran it.  Man - that thing was TOUGH!  The photo they posted on MCF before the race?  Doesn't really do that thing justice....  Asthma was a factor for me Saturday, and I was wheezing pretty hard at the top of each climb.   

I finished 8th out of 11 B3 racers, and I am absolutely ecstatic with this result!  After winning last weekend and winning CRY for the C2 field, I had made a decision that I would race B, and this was my first B race with no C race beforehand. I far exceeded my goal of simply not DFL-ing.

It was fun to watch the C-race - already in progress when Tracy and I arrived...   I have to admit that I was disappointed to see last year's C2CRY in this race (as were a number of the C2 racers I talked to afterward).  Anyway, June, Kris, and Becca were riding a tight race, and the competition for C2-second place, was HOT! I was really happy to see Michael and Brian win 1-2 for their age category!  Congrats guys!  Lynne and Sue also seemed to be having strong races.  Another highlight was when someone gave Amanda (velobella) a mtn bike (with different pedals) after she broke her chain; she finished the race on that bike!  That was great.  Lastly, Bill C. - you are one TOUGH cookie - a good b race despite recovering from recent pneumonia!

Thanks for reading - good luck to all the rodents going to jinglecross (i'm TOTALLY jealous)!

Lee

PS - During the first b-race, I saw Sherry at registration.  She told me about what had happened with Charlie (he crashed in warm-up and broke his collar bone - HUGE DRAG! I hope he has a speedy recovery!).


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