Cyclo-Cross: Carpentersville :D

We arrive at the race to find a neighborhood festival in full swing: climbing wall, food tents, and a high school marching band. Altogether, the mood was very festive and exciting :D

Paige is just a tad shorter than me, so she was riding the pink bike, and I rode Liam's bike. Liz and Susan also joined the race, Liz on her own bike, Susan on Patrick's. Apparently Liam's shoulders are about half a foot wider than mine, and this was the first time I'd ever tried using Sram shifters. On the warm up lap, I discover that I had a hard time clipping out of the left pedal, meaning right before the W4 race lined up, J was frantically changing out the pedals on my bike. It's cool, I managed to squeeze into the front row.

J had mentioned before that it's in the first 200m or so that you need to sprint. I found myself moving up mostly to avoid having to get caught behind women who cornered uber slowly. The field broke up quickly enough though, and soon I was racing alone for the most part. Carly's chain fell off early in the race, so we didn't get to ride together this time around. Only one woman passed me, and she ended up winning, so she must have been super strong/experienced. The corners weren't too bad, and it wasn't very technical of a course, but there was a sand pit! I just ran through it, although many of the more experienced riders in later races actually did ride through. Anyways, I got third in my race! Thanks to everyone who cheered for me. I tend to be "grimacing," but inside, I do appreciate it, and I do go faster.

Brian, our resident triathlete, raced 4A's today. It was spectacular watching him go through the sand pit, because every time he got off his bike, he'd pass about 5 people, no joke. The men's 4B's race was really fun too watch too, because it turns out Dan is amazingly strong and technically skilled, so he was way up the pack the entire time; he even rode through the sand pit. Eric, Adam, and Jeff all had much better placings this time around. Kevin and Bernard both tried cyclo-cross for the first time too. Unfortunately for Bernard, someone clipped his handlebars at some point, and he lost his position pretty early on, but he and Adam were together for the most part and he had a good end sprint and bike throw.

Overall, it was a blast !!!

Everyone is so ORANGE.