Marty's CX 2015

I generally like to climb.  Well, I should say I don't mind it.  In my mind, the faster I climb, the faster it's over.  However, the Marty's 2015 CX climbs seemed to last forever.

Since the course is not far from where I teach, I stopped by the previous Thursday to check out the course.  Yep.  It was just as hilly as previous years.  And they were calling for showers Saturday night into Sunday.  This was going to be...fun??


I prepared for a slick course.  I knew there were some off-camber sections as well as steep climbs that would challenge my bike-handling.  To my surprise, the course was fairly dry and the sun was starting to come out before our race.

One thing I love about our local races is that you know who you are lining up with.  And someone always cracks a joke.  This time we were given good luck kisses by Jesse the Wonder Dog.  Some of us loved it...some not so much.

I LOVE this photo! by B. Foley
I had one of my best starts.  There was some shuffling of positions through the first lap and I found myself in 4th place going into the long climb on the backside of the course.  I dug deep to find my happy place and pedaled.  I moved into 3rd place and managed to hold that position for the remainder of the race.

photo by E. Oishi
photo by E. Oishi
I'm not going to deny that this race hurt.  A lot.  I felt like I was always climbing with little to no recovery.  I remember hearing the cheers and someone offering a cupcake hand-up but that was about it.  I'm happy with my results - and I got to share the podium with some pretty rad ladies (happy birthday SB!)

I need to work on my jumping skills - photo by L. Slavin

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