Race Face

(Dennis Smith photo)
Thanks to Dennis Smith and Anthony Skorochod for their fabulous race photos. And to Big Al for the exclusive video from the run-up.

Hooked on Cross

The boy looked like death on a cracker after I dragged him around the Whirly Bird cross course for 2 practice laps. This seemed ominous and I feared that this would put a knife in heart of my "get the boy to love cross" project.

Gus arrived in time to see the boy line up with 4 other juniors, 2 of whom looked old enough to drive. Mountain bike kid in the white tee shirt looked like he would be the boy's reasonable competition.

At the end of the race, the boy looked strong and grinned from ear to ear.It didn't hurt that he finished his lap with the C3 crowd warming up behind him and cheering him on. Or the Visit PA camp in his corner. Or his Guy's teammates. We won't mention my big mouth which was heard enough yesterday.
When his dad asked him if he was ready to go fishing, the boy got that "I think I'm about to disappoint you" look on his face and said he'd rather stay at the race.

Score.

My race wasn't until 1, and he made himself "useful" by helping the announcer identify racers and cheering on all the folks who cheered him on. . He even received a shout out of thanks on the Guy's list serve for his contributions. Oh, he belongs to cross now.

He was 100% accurate in his assessment that i don't try hard enough and here's the evidence to prove it:I look like I'm ready to take a nap. Kids make you want to be the best person you can be. This extends to sports as well. I want to try my best while he's watching to set a good example.

It's great seeing father daughter duo BP and Kim share a passion for cross and their opposites L Webb and Jeff B. Now people are arriving with wee critters in tow--Lisa and Baby Daddy, the Yozells (scary DNA in that little dude), Kelly Cline and Haley. The Saint Clairs. The Zeimets. Young Anthony Skorochod and his Dad, capturing cycling. Jimmy now refers to Fatmarc as "Uncle Vanderbacon."

My parents made me play golf.

Everyone is so darn happy at cross races despite a boatload of suffering. Unlike real family gatherings where the suffering is all psycho-emotional and tears us apart, cross suffering is physical and brings us together.

Charmed, I'm Sure

Or, I sure am charmed.

Weather: glorious
Venue: Crosstastic
People: Priceless

D Lowe looks like he's practicing for the Hillbilly Hustle:

What a spectacfuckular day. Karen Tourian flew in from Paris for this race!She should get a prize for that. Kris Auer and his buddies from the Dark Side put on a great race that I am more than willing to drive beyond my 1 hour distance limit to attend.

I totally planned on leaving at noon, but the next thing I knew it was 3:15....what the hell.

I couldn't miss the Lil' Belgian race:
How about these two?
Diane and Monkey:
Oh, I will kick your ass.
It was Gail's first race! Sally came in 2nd! I remain pack fodder.
But what would a pack be without the fodder? Now that's fodder for thought. Ouch.

See you at Whirly Bird.

Cross is Boss

I'm such a dork. All in a tither about cross season. Pish. Like a middle schooler worried about the first day of school, last week I lost all enthusiasm for racing and almost dreaded the thought of lining up in the grid.

Today's race knocked that nonsense outta my head. I think the turning point occurred at the start grid when I lamented to Kim Dubeck about my DFL at the recent French Creek race to which she replied, "Would you let that go? (snap snap) It's ancient history!" OK, done.

The gun went off and I had another fabulous start only to slowly fade to the back. It was okay, though, because:

1. I was 3rd in the old lady class
2. I got to chat with another personal hero, Julie Lockhart, which totally made my day. New hero alert!
3. After DNFing at this race for the past two years (snapped derailleur hanger one year; spiritual defeat another), I finished AND felt like I actually raced AND I had fun
4. Jimmy Rock raced his first cross race and had a grand old time with his favorite section being the swoopy off-camber sections.

Great course, Uncle Mike. Beautiful sunny day. Fun driving up with Kevin St. Clair. So psyched for Kristin and Nikki's stellar finishes. Chatting with old friends and new friends.

Psyched for cross again. Few.

Jimmy liked the off-camber sections:The elite men start...lookout!
The boy decided cross was A.O.K.
Ma Finney and her boy, Shea:
Isaac smiled when his mom raced by!
Mike feigning enthusiasm:
This part looked easy but in fact it was a bear:
Craig holding court:
Just for the record books:
Classic move: I thought I was taking a picture but instead shot a little movie. Doh!

I Like to Watch

Well, 6 days until cross season and my training plan this year consists mainly of watching other people ride. It's the osmosis plan. I think it will work well.

Between the Vuelta, Tour of Missouri, and locally produced Univest Grand Prix, I didn't have to get on a bike at all to enjoy a weekend replete with cycling.

Saturday I dragged the family to Souderton to watch the final 10 circuits of the road race. It drizzled on us the whole time and if I'd closed my eyes, I would have assumed I was at a cross race.Yeah, we're at a bike race! Next week, we'll be the ones on the bikes. I won't be smiling then.
Explain to me why we're here in the rain? Huh?
"It's like this, son..."
We had an Al sighting. He was hard to miss, wearing school bus-yellow overalls and red crocs.We situated ourselves just past the finish at turn one of the finishing circuit. Had a nice chat with Anthony Skorochod who took some kick ass race photos.Saturday night Gearing UP! hosted an ice cream social at Interim House to prepare for the Bike Philly ride. Guess who sampled just about every flavor? The training diet. Ugh.

Sunday was Bike Philly and the Gearing UP! ladies hit the road for their first big ride. They totally kicked ass. I was so proud of them. The sun finally emerged and treated us to a lovely day.

On hand for the ride with the Gearing Up! gals: Human Zoom's Kristin Gavin, Christine Church, Nikki T and Mara "rhymes with Tara" Cooper; Sturdy Girls Sally Poliwoda, Brenda Miller and Gail Towsley; Club Wissahickon's Jessica Singerman, Kelly Cline and Haley joined the fun, as did Eric and Maureen Morgan. I womanned the table and tried not to scare away potential volunteers. Yeah, we rode 20 miles!
Kelly Cline and the world's happiest baby. No, not Eric. Haley!
Corinne chats up prospective volunteers. If your mornings are free and your looking for a meaningful way to share your love of cycling, check out the Gearing UP! site for opportunities to help.

I am so impressed by Kristin's efforts with this fledgling organization. It's a remarkable program and everyone involved is simply a joy.

I rode the commuter bike to the Art Museum and back, so at least I got 20 miles in.

9 Days Until CX

Nittany cross is less than 10 days away. Instead of doing intervals, I'm sitting in front of the computer. Uh oh.

I'm glad I did less than 5 races this summer. The good news is that I'm not burned out. The bad news is I feel totally under-trained. Oh well. Maybe I'll race myself into shape.

In the meantime, I'll try not to embarrass myself too much.

This year's focus has been on the boy, and getting him into the cx spirit. I hope there are some little 10-12 year old dudes in attendance at some of the races so he doesn't feel like the lone warrior.This weekend is the Univest race, Bike Philly, the Dirty Girl ride...holy cow. That should keep me outta trouble. Or not.

Straight to Hell

This FaceCrack post made me smile. Who knew PeeWee was still around and riding his bike?

"I hope you ride my bike without a helmet and get hit my a monster truck. I hope my bike takes you straight to hell."

Brilliant.

Over, under, sideways, down

And so went cross practice on Sunday. Practicing running over barriers I suddenly found myself on the ground hearing bells. I don't know what happened except that I totally spazzed and ended up with a mild concussion that included short term memory loss and a whopping headache.

Ouch.

Jimmy wanted to drive home since I had no recollection of how we got to the Plateau or where the car was. I imagined that the group had ridden through the trails (we hadn't) and while I knew that I was at Belmont Plateau, it didn't look familiar to me.

The only other time I suffered a concussion was in 1991, also at Belmont Plateau, when I crashed big at collarbone creek. That time I passed out.

The next day I went to grass track because I figured that it was best to get back on the old horse. But my stutter step has returned. Argh.

Cross is a cruel bitch, but I love her.