Washington Park Cx

Yay! After a two week hiatus I was back racing cx again this weekend. Two weeks ago the race in the Milwaukee area was cancelled due to storms coming and a concerned parks department. Last week was a secret mountain bike race of which I had to pull out of after a lap and a half because my still healing broken pinky didn't like climbing on a single speed or being slammed into a tree. But this week I was back suffering on the cx bike.

The Washington Park costume race course doesn't change much from year to year and I don't think it should. It is one of the best courses for going all out and hitting your limits and then mixing in technical stuff to catch your breath. Match that up with all the rain we have gotten recently, a sunny day, and a bunch of nuts riding in costumes, and you have a recipe for a great time.

I wavered heavily on what to dress up as this year but landed on something simple yet creepy. With a week old mustache, some Just for Men--Black, a pair of cheap aviators, I was "Undercover Marc." I couldn't wear the aviators all day because they were giving me a headache but the the picture below gives you the idea.

photo courtesy of Kate

It was so creepy that when grabbing dinner with friends after the race people had a hard time looking me in the face!

I had a weak start again, but it wasn't horrible. I made up a lot of spots in the first quarter mile. For the first half of the race I was moving up and going back and forth with a few guys. One guy passed me and after a lap I couldn't hold his wheel. That was frustrating, and it looks like he placed pretty well in the end. 

Eventually Jake caught up to me and for a couple of laps we road together. 

photo courtesy of Kate

At one point, we were working through some lapped traffic and he got a little gap on me but I started to close it down again. That is when my leg cramped a little and decided to stay straight when I needed to bend it to go over the first uphill barrier. My foot caught the barrier and I hit the ground hard. Real hard. I got up and starting going again but with a lap and a half left, my aspirations of catching Jake were over.

At the same time, I think I gave some hope to the guys behind me, so I still did my best to lay down some power for the rest of the race. In the end I was 9th. Not a great placing again, but top ten in a pretty deep field. I have two, maybe three, more races to see if I can get back up to top five. I think I can.