4 posts tagged “pilarcitos”
yes, that's right, in San Mateo. Coyote Point State Park. Gorgeous course. Cold morning - frosty even, but not a wisp of wind (hooray!). I drove Larry and myself down in Nathan's 'rusty bucket of bolts" (name for his trusty red truck)...we arrived around 7am to finish setting up with the Pilarcitos folks (such nice guys - really!). Anyway - after freezing and helping for a bit - I rested in the relative warmth of the truck (with no working heater fan) and dozed for 10 minutes or so before deciding "i'm too cold, I might as well ride, dammit". So onto my bike I got... 3 or 4 laps in before the men's C race started.
This race has several barrier sections (which I'm much better at today compared to 2 months ago) - and two short but steep and LOOSE climbs. Nothing too technical - but if you spin out and lose your momentum... you're done!
Finally my race comes around - and I'm standing on the start line chatting with the ladies having a great old time. So fun to see Ren at our last race (Hope you're doing well Ren!). Dana, me, Courtney, Megan, Jenny and other's get in the call up line behind the juniors. We are all so excited to be racing this race... when I realized "hm, i'm not exactly sure which concrete hill I"m supposed to take, is it this first right or the second?" and of course I over think it... so I hopped on someone else's wheel - it was Courtney and Megan. Thanks ladies for showing me the start of the course (for you readers - they change the start to make it faster and less of a clusterfuck at the beginning - we charged up a concrete ramp rather than starting with a barrier). Once we reached the top of the hill, everyone seemed to be recovering on the easy pavement, except for Megan and me. We both charged down the hill together - Megan outperfomed me in every way with her stellar downhill mountain bike skillz. But as soon as we hit the sand, I charged down the beach - got back on, chased Megan and over took her on the pavement... and that was it. Every pavement section (there was lots of flat pavement in this course) I made sure to power down, put the hurt on, and not look back too long. There were several sections of course that doubled back on itself - so I saw Dana a few times... Miss D came in second and Miss Courtney was 3rd I believe! (after her engagement party the night before - no less!)
Some quick stats:
3 = number of laps we did in 30 minutes - the course was nearly 2 miles / lap! (that's pretty long)
2 = number of times i bobbled or tripped while dismounting in the race including one actual trip off my bike in the sand.
4 = number of bruises I now have from tripping over my bike
1 = number of sore shoulders from banging my bike on it while running that long sandy section
0 = number of times i bled and number of times I tripped over a barrier (yay - new personal best)
2 = times I heard Dana yell "go Marissa"
2 = number of times I yelled "go Dana!"
musings on the series - a very well run, well spectated, really fun race series. The prizes were a fun added bonus - Thanks sponsors! The comraderie at these events is unparalleled with any other sporting event I've been to (and I've been to tons - believe me!). There were RMC folks out at 5am on Sunday setting up, and we were out there till 5:30 pm tearing down. No wonder some of us are exhausted on Mondays!
Overall for the series I chalked up 4 wins and 1 dnf. That was enough to give Dana (super stud rockstar) 5 point advantage over me in the overall to take the super sweet leaders jersey for the C women. I cant wait to move up to the B's - really start training for CX - and keep putting the hurt on - more to come in 2008!
Keep pedaling in the big chain ring!
1,005 views on my flickr site. For anyone that doesnt know me, i've been obsessed with it for the past week. Tons of new pics from the weekend cross race - and there's a race report coming soon, I promise. Until then... this will have to do...
I've never been so proud to be on such a kick ass team! I LOVE
being out there racing and hearing my name on every corner,
hearing "wooo" from my awesome teammates (like dana...who rocked the
course!)... and of course the joint puking at the end... no not really
any puking this time around...
My fam made the pilgrimmage... how cool! They truly understand what I'm
talking about now, this 'cyclocross' thing ... it was inspirational for
them to hear how AWESOME this team is... they were also commenting on
how incredible it was to hear their daughters name all over the race
course....
Bottom line - larry said it all - it was a bumpy fast roadie course. I
used lots of my new skills that I learned last weekend to put the hurt
ON... i used my new sprinting skills and my new cornering skills... the
call up was special and awesome for the best place on the line.. the
full out 200 yard sprint to the first corner... got there first, got
passed by two ladies and then they both faltered on the first technique
(chain issues I think)... and I just said "sorry" and zoomed past, put
the hammer down early - and went. Noted in the race: Julie (my awesome
feed buddy, leader jersey wearin' take charge woman!) said "damn, i'm
not ready - you're too fast!" as i careened around the corner...
apparently i was out in front and nobody had tabs on my position??? I
hammered the pavement.. i believe I heard someone (julie?) say "dont
hammer too hard too early"... i thought about that for awhile too...
And then I think I heard Paule say "turn on the gas" right after
that :) thanks coach!
once I didnt see anyone around me any more - i saw Dana out there -
kicking @ss. way to go C women! WE had so much fun out there. :)
Timmay, DP, Mike P, Paule, Brook, Julie, Dane, Larry, and everyone - you guys ROCKED
the hizouse this weekend - HOORAY for pilarcitos. cant wait to race
again...
Yesterday was a TRUE TEAM affair. Glory to the Mouse. It was so fun!
I have to say that Paule and Julie devoting their ENTIRE weekend to
the elegant sport of cyclocross should be recognized HANDS DOWN.. Sun up to sun down they
set up, rode, conducted clinics, and finally tore up the course! My heros :)
The Saturday pre-ride was a must. For those of you not there, I
literally took 20 minutes to talk myself into that pit of death - or
whatever you call it. i walked down, walked up, got several
perspectives and decided the only line i liked was to go way outside
and cut the corner, taking the drop off as more of an offcamber ...
and then clip out in the mud and climb back up. That totally worked
in the C race. The best advice I got on Saturday was "bolt
like hell for the first 400meters" you have to get to that pit
first... and bolt I did... so i got to ride it like i wanted.
Nothing was more awesome then seeing Ren and Dana out there. I told
Ren "hey if you have enough breath to scream for me, you're not
riding hard enough" (just kidding!) the support was amazing.
The juniors started before us C women. I lined up as close to the front as possible. Joined by Dana, Renee, and Brooke. The whistle blew, and it just got better from there. I was bummed to forget to set my
watch/hrm to 'go' so i could register my heart rate. i didnt dare
look at it mid-race. I tried hard to use my new "skills" on the barriers but
wasnt comfy with them yet... i did okay on them but still lots of
room to improve. THEN run up and loop de loops- because the pre-ride was
so awesome, i knew just where it was time to get FAST ... and where
to hammer. I did take a slide down the easy downhill into gravel -
right elbow cut to shreds, knees bleeding... but didnt know it till it was all over.
(hey i'm still a beginner!) My entire forearm was dripping with
blood and dust. ick AND hard core! I was bummed that one girl (J) passed me
in the middle just after i fell - but i kept my game face on and
never let her out of my sights. so imagine my (guilty)
excitement when i watched her crash in front of me... easy to ride
around her and take first again...
The pressure was on, after her crash, i hammered to make sure she
didnt catch me again... at the end, I felt great - but was so happy
to have it over.. lungbusting craziness! The coolest podium ever,
cool leader's jerseys to defend in two weeks!
Post race was a blur of hot dog and beer induced laziness. I cheered, I sat in the surprisingly warm Brisbane sun, and I desperately wanted a nap - the pavement under Timmay's truck looked cozy.. Mad Props for J and A for braving the scene and the sun. Ladies it was 100% more fun with IM ladies there to cheer me on! woohoo!
Alas, 2pm rolled around and I decided earlier that I just had to see how these women's B races feel -
just to see how it was different. It felt just like i felt in the C races last year (i did 3 c races on a too small mtn bike)... fast and crowded. i was in the middle of the pack. Nothing cooler than having ALL the Meece out there SCREAMING for me again. This is the
best team in the world! I heard from the crowd "what, one race wasnt enough for you"? I think that was just after I ate sh*t over the barrier on the second lap. I twisted my left ankle (ouch - again - see my previous injury) and this time landed with my right knee down and bike on top of me! SWEET. I'm a dork.as I limped back up the hill, i thought... "do i quit???? hmmmmm. nope - if you can clip in you can race"
I played a little cat and mouse with a dfl girl (yay team dfl... booo bad pun) and caught her a 3rd time on my last lap... I cheered her as we rode up the last steep section and we just flew through the twisties... and got to the bumpy straightaway just before the end... and i poured it on.. dfl gal just laughed at me as I pulled around her to take 17th. Ha! so 17 out of 24 B women. Not bad to be in the middle of the pack on my second race... whew - that was a tough race... but I didnt bleed any more!
We rocked out there... no other team came close! It's enough to make
this tough gal shed a tear :) The clean up and tear down was like race
3 - brutal... i feel kinda like i was beaten with some 2X4s a few
rounds yesterday... how do we recover from this??? 12 hours of
sleep? check. but i didn't sleep well b/c no matter which way i turned - i hurt!
Whew - cant wait to do it all again with this awesome team!
