Cyclocross is really hard, but fun

John Foley crushed the 2/3/4 class at Mansfield Hollow. You really can not see how ripped Foley is in this picture but if you check out the site I stole it from you will see how impressive John really is.

Hey Mom! That's me with the blue helmet.

Michel Mckittrick eats pieces of sod like me for breakfast and poops me out the back. I grabbed these photos off of this site.

Thanks Steve Yau for taking them. They look much more impressive over there.

I haven't updated my blog in quite a while. Mainly because I haven't had the time or energy to do so. Since I was sick I felt like I had been sucking and therefore wasn't very excited to tell every one how much I suck. I also have been enjoying reading every one else's blogs that that consumes my time.

Anyway, Providence was fun but hard to move up from starting all the way in the back row. I went from 90th to 28th with 100 guys in my field. I was really happy that my grandparents from CA came out to see me race. I haven't seen them for 18 years. It was good to catch up on things.

I raced at Mansfield Hollow and placed 5th in the Cat 2/3/4. My goal was to beat McKittrick , but I think he wanted to beat me and showed that he could on the first lap. After we went through the sand I dropped my chain and there he went. Cross is so unforgiving. I'm not giving an excuse, I'm sure he would have beaten me anyway. Great job Mike! I battled it out for 5th place with Ryan O'hara, one of Mike's team mates, and I was able to get him at the line. It was tough to keep up with him but by the final lap I was on his wheel and I thought we could get up to 4th if we tried harder. I was trying to encourage him by telling him we can catch 4th, but I guess I wound up using him to get me to the finish line. That's cross. It's all about the mind games.

John Foley got the win. I won some winter riding gloves and some cash. Great course. I really appreciate the people who put this race on. Mckittrick wrote a great report on the course and race. Check it out.

I loved the course so much that for $10 more I entered the pro race an hour later. I was feeling good and confident. Then I told Colin I was going to be racing with him and he was like, "you're going to regret it after you start." I was thinking man he might be right but I'm feeling good so maybe he's wrong. He was right!

He was so right that he would have lapped me if I didn't drop out at the bell lap. That was really hard to suffer for that long. But I kept telling myself to stick it out. I still had fun. Maybe I would do better if I didn't blow myself out and then race the fastest guys around. What I discovered though was that I haven't been pushing myself enough for my own race. I haven't felt so much pain and suffering during the pro race and it took every bit of strength to finish the race. I got lapped so I didn't finish but I was done. My track coach in 8th grade told me that when I'm heading for the finish line if I wasn't fully out of gas I didn't push myself enough. I'll try that next time and let you know if it worked.

It was good to see Rob Stine racing with gears like me. The course didn't suit mountain bikers too much like I had hoped but then again Foley won my race so there you go.

Next race Hartford Cross! I see that Ryan O'hara is signed up. I'm sure he wants a rematch.

By the way Cyclocrossresults.com is really cool. Thanks Colin for making that site.