I did my best, as they say, to get the rough & tough stuff out of the way early.
It was a challenge to make it to the race to begin with. We were up in Leechburg, PA for the wedding of a a good friend from college. With a limited budget we decided to head for home after the wedding. The drive was long and tiring and I was doing all I could to stay awake on sugar and caffeine. It certainly is not the type of drive I will attempt in the near future.
James, my husband a bike crasher extraordinaire, aka Road Rash Billiter headed up for his Cat 4 race at 10:30 am while I caught up on my zzzzsss after about 12+ hours of driving in 2 days. I woke up to the horrible sound of the rain. Without my spare wheels which were waiting for a 10 speed spacer I was SOL for some mud tires. I had to run my "all conditions" (which should really be marketed as "all conditions DRY" tubulars). Things were already not looking so hot.
I arrived @ 11am with plenty of time to pre-ride and to track down my crazy husband which can sometimes be more challenging than a cyclocross race. Road Rash had a pretty good race finishing in the top 15 out of like 80 something guys. He knows when to throw the hammer down and he has worked really hard to get faster at cyclocross. I am really proud of my hubby.
James stuck around to keep his bike in the pit for me. I was riding okay, perhaps a bit off from the day before when I flew around a corner and skidded out on my head.The only good thing was that there were no spectators on that side of the course.
I sat there for a little while in a daze and assessing my ability to finish. I'd have to rank that doozy of a wreck in the top 3 all time bad ass wrecks. I finally decided that I was okay enough to finish but I had hit the ground so hard I knocked my handlebars out of place. So, after about 5 minutes of fumbling around I got back into the swing of things. I fumbled like a gazillion times after that slipping and sliding my way around the course. My hip was hurting, my knee was cut open and bleeding, and my body shut down like a little baby. I was hurting but I didn't quit, I don't know why because it was pretty silly at that point to continue. I finished like 2nd from last; not DFL but pretty close. I'm hurting today; physically and mentally but I know I couldn't have had a worse race. Phew, as one of my cycling buds says "when you suck completely, you will/can only get better from there."
