They say that cyclocross is a great way to stay in shape as a road rider, but if your a couch rider like me it's actually more of a great way to get your ass kicked and humbled. I've been a slim guy all my life and people mistakenly equate being slim with being fit but when you ride against folks who ride often, it doesn't matter if they're older or heavier, they still seem to leave me in the dust.
What keeps me coming back for my weekly serving of humble pie? Races like Crosstastic, put on by FAST OLD GUYS (FOG) cycle club. With its double hill of death and mud pit mayhem, it was certainly the hardest race that I've experienced this season. When you see the organizers pumping in water from the stinky Red River to make the 8 inch deep mud pit, you know things are gonna get real, real fast.
As soon as the race started I had my eye out for a good candidate to wheelsuck hoping that it would help me save some energy for the second half of the race. I recently read that its more pleasant to work harder in the second half of a race as opposed to the first. I forgot one small detail, you have to keep up to be able to wheelsuck. All I seemed to do was jump behind a rider and then slowly watch him pull away, yeeesh! It's like they didn't get the memo that I was there to wheelsuck.
I must say though that I handled the mud pit with some degree of grace. Opting to dismount right before the mud and haul ass to get through as quickly as possible. When I reached the front section I was feeling pretty good until I hit the double hill of death. Running up the first 50ft hill wasn't too bad but having to run back down and then right back up the second hill was killer. I barely made it out of there alive and the best part was that I got to do it 3 more times.
In the end I finished with a big smile on my face and ranked 21st out of 25 men in the C category. My feet were 5 pounds heavier with caked on mud, my lungs a little more tired and heart a little stronger for its effort.
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