Ouch my life.

Today kicked off the cyclocross season for this particular slacker. A brand new course with elevation changes a-plenty promised to deliver some serious pain. Since injury took me out back in late July I have had exactly 5 days of real riding and about 10 more days of soft-pedaling to work and back. Not exactly the best prep for cyclocross. ESPECIALLY not for a season opener with this much up-hill.
I have never been the type to walk into a pool slowly. I know the water is cold and it's always better to just jump in and get that initial shock to the system over with. So what better way to dust off the cobwebs?
I lined up in the back C race (hey... I'm a lazy cat4 after all). No delusions of grandeur for this guy. I knew the next 30 minutes were going to kick my ass so I opted to just stay out of the way. 5 laps later I was ready to keel over but at least I passed a few guys who seemed to be having a worse day than me.
Don't be fooled though... I still had a great time. Like mountain biking, cross is one of those things I am really bad at but still thoroughly enjoy. What made it even better is that I did not feel nearly as bad out there as I expected to. The legs actually felt pretty OK (but the lungs were no amused by the effort).
Tomorrow's race in Bryan Park should be better. The flat course suits my lack of fitness a bit better and I always seem to race just a little bit better the 2nd day of a back to back weekend.

The best news of the day was Beckmann winning his first cross race. Starting out he said he kept thinking "I'm going to crash, this is going to suck, I am going to break my bike!" As it turns out he doesn't suck and along with fellow first timer Marc Warner of TNP/3sports, rode away from the C field. On the final uphill Beckmann put in a hard attack on Marc right before the stairs and was able to keep his gap to the finish. Guess you'll be racing the B tomorrow, eh Brian?

I could only hang around for the first lap of the A/B race because Sarah and I had to go watch Keck get married. I was there long enough to see Andrew Troy attacking the shit out of the B field. My high hopes for a Team CBC double were later squashed by text message later that day when I learned that he flatted and was a DNF. Better luck tomorrow...