GA CX #4, Rome - This was a new course in a downtown park on a river. The course was a fast technical one with the main obstacle(s) being a steep levee that we had to climb or run up four times per lap. I got a good start again, right up with the leaders and held on for a couple of laps before getting gapped. There was no one behind me for a good distance so I kept hammering and placed 4th on the day. 
GA CX #5, Blairsville - Today was the first really cold day of the season with temps in the upper 20's when I got to the race venue. The skys were overcast with high humidity so it was a chilly start. Todays course was a lot of up and down on pretty steep hills, a long dirt road and lots of long wet grass. During the warm-up I pretty much decided that it just was not fun - although that also had a lot to do with the fact that I was tired. I got to the start line and we were off. Not as good of a position today because my legs didn't have much snap, so I settled in with a small group just off the back of the lead pack and rode a couple of laps there. About half-way through the race I put in a good acceleration and got away from them. I held steady for the rest of the race and finished in 6th.
GA CX #6, Fort Yargo - State Championships race today on a great course. Ft.Yargo is a real speed course with strategically placed barriers and a long deep sand beach section. This race is also put on by the club I'm affiliated with here in GA, Gwinnett Touring Club, so I was there on Saturday AM to help with setting up and taping the course in preparation for the next day. The day dawned sunny and a little cold, but conditions at the start were just about perfect. I launched and got right up with the leaders again today and just like in past races, held my spot for a couple of laps before tailing off the back. One of the front group had gone down on a gravel road section and dropped back to where I was, so I glued myself to his wheel and we made a race of it. I was riding the technical sections better than he was and hoped I could attack during the last lap and get away. That almost worked, but he stayed close enough to catch back up to me just before the beach. He sprinted so fast through the sand that he got about a 5 meter gap, and I could not catch back up in time to sprint for the finish line. Need to do some work on my running before next year! Another 5th place finish.
GA CX "Make-Up" Race, Conyers - Todays race was a make-up, or "mulligan" race where you could use it to drop your lowest race placing for the overall standings. Since I missed Savannah, this was my chance to get back some points. It had rained for several days before the race, and the course was a muddy, slippery mess. In other words - lots of fun. I have to be honest in saying that I was really not impressed with how the course developed with all of the mud. If it were dry it would have been a blast, but there were a lot of off camber turns and hills that got so sloppy as to be very difficult to ride. It would have been a great Mountain Bike course, but on a 'cross bike it was a long mucky slog. It's odd, but the entire race I was vascillating between thinking "this is great" and "this sucks"... Anyway - more of the same. Decent start, good position, tacked on to the leaders, then bad luck for the first time this season. I miscalculated a stream jump and wiped out in the deep mud. When I got back on the bike everything seemed OK until I hit a steep hill. When I shifted up my chain came off the top cog and wedged into the spokes. It took me nearly two minutes to get everything sorted out and the bike shifting again, but by that time I was way out of contention. The rest of the race was to chase and try to make up as much ground as possible. I did manage to pass about six or seven riders and finished in 7th. I was pleased to see that!
GA CX #7, Dallas Finale - Last race of the season and double points on the line. Quite possibly the absolute worst race to not be prepared for (nothing like a bit of foreshadowing). On Friday before the race I had to be at the warehouse for Inventory. Ten hours on my feet in a frigid warehouse counting parts. Oh joy... My legs, feet and lower back were aching by the end of the day. Friday night was my company Christmas party. Krista and I had the evening to ourselves as both Chase and Thera had a sleep-over at a friends house. We also had a chaffeur to the party. We had a great time and really enjoyed ourselves. It was 2:00AM before we turned in, but sleeping in really late was not to be with the dogs getting me up several times that morning. Between that and a bit of the hair of the dog, Saturday was long and tired. I did get on the rollers that evening to try and open the legs up some. Race day was sunny, blustery and cold. The course was OK with a bit of everything. Fast sweeping sections, climbs, technical turns, hard run-ups, sand and hills. It was also extremely rough which is NOT one of my favorites. I could tell during my warm-up ride that I was going to have trouble today. No snap at all. The race start was just more of the same. I felt so bad that I was nearly dead last only half way through the first lap. I finally got mad as hell and started to make up ground and passed a few groups of riders, only to catch my handlebars on the course marker tape and wipe out in dramatic fashion. It was right back to mid-pack and then a long drawn-out trudge to just finish. I hit my knee on a rock so that was bothering me on the run-ups, making a bad day just that much worse. After what felt like hours I finally finished in 11th place. Because the day was double points, I lost my 4th place in the standings by 9 points. If I had just placed 10th I could have held on, but there was nothing left to give by the end of the race. Blah.
It was kind of a bummer way to end the series, but that's racing. If I was bitten by the 'Cross bug before, now I'm a total rabid fanatic. I'm determined to be on the podium next year and already have a general outline of how my training plan will look in 2009. And that is a big step, because for the past five years I have not been "training" at all, just riding my bike and getting fit in a non-specific sort of way. I'll have company, too. Chase went with me to several races this year and says that he wants to try racing Cyclocross too. So I'll be working on a plan for him as well!
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