my first cyclo-cross race

As you can see my heart rate was pretty high through the whole race. I hear this course was pretty hard and technical. It certainly did have a number of tight switchbacks on wet leaves and grass and I saw quite a few guys go down, but I have to admit that coming from mountain biking it wasn't so bad. I think that is part of the reason that I enjoyed it so much: the switchbacks were on grass! not pointy-sharp rocks looking to separate my from some of my flesh. There was a big hill (paved) which was a killer for a lot of guys but I "like" hills and was able to make time and move up in the race on that hill. Normally, I can look at a graph of my heart rate and see where the hills were in a ride because my hr goes up correspondingly. Not this time. nope. maxed the entire time.

Overall I placed fourth, in a tight finish with one other guy who really was a stronger rider. I believe he had some mechanical trouble which allowed me to catch up to him. We see-sawed back and forth trading 3rd and 4th several times before he was able to take third in the end.

One of the best things about this race was the fact that my daughter was along with me. The course only took about 4-5 minutes to make a lap and I could see her cheering me on from several different places on the course. It was great and I can't wait to have her along with me again next week and the week after that and the week after that. And perhaps the week after that which is the Mo. State Championships which is being held in Kansas City the day after a UCI race which would be really cool to do. We'll see.

update 11/9: placed 4th out of 20 guys. Not too bad.