I should start off by telling you all a little bit about myself. I am a runner, always have been, I run a lot, I don’t bike and going into my first race on a bike I had about 6hrs of ridding bikes under my belt for the entire year. I am scared of single track and going down hill fast. I was roped into biking by my great friend Taylor (the superb P.T. from the wonderful Tensegrity Physical Therapy Clinic). I really started doing it because I liked the indoor (short) trainer rides and abb workouts we did last winter, but when Mt. biking season started I pretty much stopped all form of team training. I was training for the Eugene and Portland marathons so biking got in the way of my running. I kept saying wait until I’ve run the Portland then I’ll change gears. True to my word I’m doing cross. I think it’s the best for me anyway. I don’t have to worry about too much down hill or super fast crits to get bunched up in. I can just ride hard, crank out the miles and race.
So I raced my first race in Eugene, one of those Tuesday night races, long story short I road into loose dirt and ate shit lost my chain, a wonderful reverse breakaway every time I hit single track, followed by the second to last lap ridding too fast into loose gravel eating shit loosing my chain and a good amount of skin. I finished about 8th out of 15 with a DNF or two or so people, but UN deterred.
Second race ever, now with 7 hrs of ridding under my belt (including the 30 min commute out there on my bike and the 30 min race the week before). I felt good road hard, and flatted on the second to last lap. I ran into the pit but had no spare wheel waiting so I DNFed.
Third race, I decided to just go for it, I had got a tubeless set up through the team bike shop (lovely Collins off of 11th in Eugene, wonderful place) so I was feeling good about everything. I took off from the start staying ahead of everyone into the first turn, and then just held it from there. Other than a pile up when I started to run into the back of the C’s, where a fellow rider who will remain nameless flipped over his handle bars and head butted me in the ass, the race was pretty un eventful. I worked my way up about halfway into the C’s before the race was over. Good job me, look out Portland beginners.
I didn’t ride for the next 2 weeks, week one coming before the Portland marathon (PR and broke 3 hrs), then having a week break. So PIR was my first race back I was excited to kick some ass, with a bigger field, maybe some more competition to battle for first place. Spencer Bushnell promptly informed me, that you get no props for winning a beginner race even if it is only your 4th race ever…
So there I was getting ready to ride, stuck in (almost) the back of the pack (if I had been in the back I would have gotten a coupon for a free six pack), waiting for the start of my first C race, in a field of about 160 other C’s, not really knowing what to expect. I quickly learned that you have to be aggressive if you want to move up the ladder. I finally got to a point where I could cruse a little bit by the time I got around for my second lap. Sadly ridding so slow the first lap didn’t really give me any idea of what the course was like, plus not getting a preride at all let alone with Wes to tell my how to ride every corner and obstacle, made it challenging. I learned as I went, never really getting the hang of most of the turns or corners, but I kept passing people and working my way up in the standings. I did however get very down trodden when I was passed by a group of 3 fast guys on lap 5 of my eventual 6 laps, I thought I was being lapped, but it turned out that it was just the Clydesdales who had started a min after us.
Long story short I got 40th and I’m excited for my next race, and think I’m going to have to invest in a ss bike so I can race in two races a day, because one is just not enough for me, and while I may be lacking the skills, I’m not lacking the cardio, so the more time racing in the saddle the better for me.
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