Post by Josh Whitmore on Dec 16, 2007 22:18:59 GMT -5
Course conditions from bad to worse!
I was pretty demoralized after my masters race yesterday, so I wasn't very excited to post an update. The predicted snow and low temps came in as expected. 3 inches new snow and temps in the low 20's for my 11am race. The course was frozen solid. All the mud ruts from the previous day were fozen in time, like fossils of a time long ago. The problem was that the ruts never go where you want them to.
I lined up 110th and finshed 42nd, although I was hoping to break the top 15, maybe 10. I went pretty slow, tentative of the course and crashed about every minute and a half. The temps were hard for me to deal with. Hands and feet like ice blocks 5 mins into the race. Yuck.
Sunday:
Warmed up a little today, right around freezing, so the course thawed out a bit. Had some muddy sections, some icey sections.
Pro race: lined up 144th and finished 59th. I had a much better race today, and was flying on the first lap and passed about 60 people. I continued to move up the entire race and was around 45th place, then on the last lap, I took two hard falls, one where I spent a good deal of time un-tangling myself from the course tape. A bunch of people passed me then.
I am really happy with this race, as I fared much better than the previous day and did ok against the countries best pros and elite cross racers.
Only a couple more cross races to go - in England as we visit family over christmas.
Josh
I was pretty demoralized after my masters race yesterday, so I wasn't very excited to post an update. The predicted snow and low temps came in as expected. 3 inches new snow and temps in the low 20's for my 11am race. The course was frozen solid. All the mud ruts from the previous day were fozen in time, like fossils of a time long ago. The problem was that the ruts never go where you want them to.
I lined up 110th and finshed 42nd, although I was hoping to break the top 15, maybe 10. I went pretty slow, tentative of the course and crashed about every minute and a half. The temps were hard for me to deal with. Hands and feet like ice blocks 5 mins into the race. Yuck.
Sunday:
Warmed up a little today, right around freezing, so the course thawed out a bit. Had some muddy sections, some icey sections.
Pro race: lined up 144th and finished 59th. I had a much better race today, and was flying on the first lap and passed about 60 people. I continued to move up the entire race and was around 45th place, then on the last lap, I took two hard falls, one where I spent a good deal of time un-tangling myself from the course tape. A bunch of people passed me then.
I am really happy with this race, as I fared much better than the previous day and did ok against the countries best pros and elite cross racers.
Only a couple more cross races to go - in England as we visit family over christmas.
Josh
