[GW] St. Cloud race report

[Lynne]

Bill!  How could I forget your name?  :-(  
   
  There are some great photos of you on Skinny Ski, too.  (loved the helmet, btw)
   
  Since this was the most difficult course of the year and it looks like you did really well, I'll just say hi to you before the race and hi to you as you lap me at Lake Rebecca ;-)

Bill Connell <bconnell at gmail.com> wrote:
  Yeah, the course was pretty hard. It was deceptive, because the first
1/3 of the course was just winding and flat. The rest of the course
wasn't horrible, but that flat first 1/3 definitely ended up being a
recovery zone for me. I obviously should have listened to that inner
voice a month ago that said, "you'd better start running now, you know
that cross is going to hurt less if you do some running".

I thought i was doing pretty well for this race - spent Friday night
prepping the bike, had a good breakfast, got there plenty early enough
for registration and pre-riding the course, and only then realized
that i'd forgotten my helmet. Luckily, i was able to borrow one (in
team colors, no less) and get into the race.

Helmet sorted, I started out the C race pretty well, passing a dozen
or two riders on the first lap after a start toward the back of the
pack. After the first lap and final runup to the start/finish line, i
had to pull back and pace myself to get through the next 4 laps. It
was a pretty hot day for 'cross, and i was wishing i'd arranged a
water handup after lap 2.

Once i was in pacing mode, i just tried to hold my place and
concentrate on good form and pushing as i could. I was pretty happy
with the barrier form, just a couple of stutter steps and one missed
pedal jumping on for the runup, but the minnehaha practice helped a
lot.

Great to see lots of rodents out today, thanks for the cheering and
fun to cheer everyone else - last year i didn't really know people's
names, but i think i knew everyone today. No idea of my how i placed,
but i'm reasonably happy with the season opener overall. I'm taking
next weekend off, i'll be back for Lake Rebecca in a couple of weeks.

-- 
Bill Connell
St. Paul, MN

_______________________________________________
Gophers mailing list
Gophers at mcf.net
http://mail.mcf.net/mailman/listinfo/gophers_mcf.net


       
---------------------------------
Tonight's top picks. What will you watch tonight? Preview the hottest shows on Yahoo! TV.    
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.mcf.net/pipermail/gophers_mcf.net/attachments/20070924/fd9b39ff/attachment-0001.html