OVCX Brookside

I didn't get a real good start

And had a bunch of girls in my way

Eh eh

But thanks to muddy turn'

I never really fell off the pace

Eh eh, hey ey

I get to the stairs and I run real strong

But my friends don't tell me that something's wrong

Then my chain fell off...

And eh, there's nothing else I can say

Eh eh, eh eh

There's nothing else I can say

Eh eh, eh eh

I wish it would've gone another way

Eh eh, eh eh

There's nothing else I can say

Eh eh, eh eh

Yep, that pretty much covers it.  The Brookside OVCX race was one pretty good lap where I managed to stay with a big group of girls, although I was at the back, which was frustrating on a slick, turny course.  Then I got aggressive trying to move up on the stairs, possibly caught my bike on someone else's bike, and remounted at the top to find that I'd dropped my chain. Then my glove got stuck in between the chain and the chain ring (while still on my hand).  Panic ensued, and I lost big chunk of time that I was having no luck closing over the course of the next lap.  The last two laps can be summarized by the fact that I got $3 and a beer hand-up.  And for one of the dollars I actually ran backwards on the course, grabbed it, and gave Tim O. a kiss on the cheek in return, as kisses for dollars seem to be proper etiquette now.

So it was not my most glorious race of the season, but I managed not last even after all of that.  That's kind of funny after fighting tooth and nail for not last and Lexington and coming up short.  I did manage to be featured in an online article for Cyclocross Magazine.

***

In other news, it seems like I might accidentally be becoming an endurance mountain bike racer again.  I'd been harboring all of these big plans for track and crits next summer, but that doesn't seem to be the way life is pushing me, and maybe I'm actually getting smart enough to learn to go with the flow.

Four years ago I wanted to be an endurance racer so badly and drove all over the country (usually alone) to get to races.  I loved the people I met and the experiences that I had, but it was expensive and kind of lonely, since I was the only person the area that did that sort of thing at the time.  Since then, I've started going with the (logistically) easy, fun, social option over exhausting ego-stroking pursuits.  However, things are converging in such a way that endurance racing is starting to look like the easy, fun, social option instead of the hard, scary, lonely option it was a few years ago.

Last week I saw on Facebook that Janelle, fresh off her Gravel Grovel victory, had signed up for the Big Frog 65 in April.  The race hadn't even been on my radar until that point, but it suddenly seemed like a great idea, and I asked if she wanted a teammate to come along.  The other thing coming down the pipeline is the now more-than-rumored Cincinnati-area 6 hour mountain bike series that Big Dave Sports is putting together for next summer.  A tentative schedule has come out and the venues are all under three hours away, and the four-race series is nicely spaced through May, June, and July.  The first one is four weeks after the Big Frog 65 and the last one is the last weekend of July, leaving a good six weeks to tune up the speed before 'cross.  Plus, several friends seem interested in racing the series, as well, so hopefully there will be no more long, lonely road trips to cabins without cell phone service.

Tentative 6 Hour Series Schedule:

Saturday, May 25, 2013 - England-Idlewild
Saturday, June 22, 2013 - Versailles
Sunday, July 14, 2013 - East Fork
Sunday, July 28, 2013 - Hueston Woods