Stellar!

First off, the Portland cross scene puts Colorado to shame. Not that it isn’t great in Colorado, but I can't imagine something like Cross Crusade happening every weekend over a season in Colorado. Maybe in time. The folks that run CC do a fantastic job, I am really impressed.

So to the races...
Sunday. I had the time wrong for my race so I accidently raced with the C's instead of the Master C's. I even asked someone at the start which race it was and he said Master C...not sure what he was thinking, not sure why I didn’t notice everyone was way younger than me. 134 people in a mass start on a narrow path was a little unnerving to say the least, so I kind just took it easy at first...mostly because I was petrified. After the first few corners I was able to start moving up. I stuck with a group of about 7 guys and we traded positions and passed people for most of the race. Unknowingly we worked together. A couple things stood out to me. First, riding in deep mud is something that requires some practice because without failure I got passed every time we hit the large mud pit. It baffled me because it seemed like I was pushing hard. I was also surprised to see people falling so much. I have never seen pile ups like that before. I ended up 52nd.

My race on Saturday was really fun too. Buy Local put together a fantastic course. On the first lap a guy fell right in front of me and caused me a pretty big gap. When I tried to bridge to the leaders I found myself alone and accidently followed an old golf cart path off the course into no-man’s land. I was pretty embarrassed as everyone passed by me while I waited to jump back on the course at the spot I left it. On subsequent laps a guy was standing there so nobody (I) made the same mistake. I spent the rest of the race chasing people down, I ended up 5th in the beginners.

Although I had some mishaps, I had a blast. I am still pretty wiped out, but if anybody wants to get in some training PM me. I may head up to Forest Park on Wednesday.