Tripling up

All Hallows 'Cross 2009 race report
Hughesville, MD
October 31, 2009

Wet conditions, mostly fast course with one AWESOME singletrack section, a LONG sand horse arena (thankfully tracked, wet, and solid by the time we raced) and one LONG, uphill, muddy, and grassy SLOG. Definitely a race-changer. One of the barriers was a 15" diameter corrugated pipe right before a slightly uphill U-turn. We went through a small barn. There were glow-in-the dark skeletons hanging in the woods and in the barn, and at one point a guy with a chainsaw. The mist and drizzle was pretty much continuous through the morning.

35+
Decent start, good position in the top 6 for the first 2 laps. 3rd lap caught a guy who was a little slower in the singletrack than I'd have liked, and I lost some ground on the front group. Still top 10. 4th lap, though... got off the good line in the long muddy slog, and lost 6 spots all at once. Lost a few more spots late in the race thinking I'd save my legs for the 3/4 race. Got 16th.

3/4
Excellent start but started cramping in the first lap. Took a while to settle in, but still wasn't able to make up ground when it mattered. Lost a lot of spots when I got off of a good line in the long slog (again) and lost a lot of places all at once. The www.cxhairs.com guy was behind me on one lap going through the singletrack. Can't wait to see what that looks like. It was the only time the whole race (pick one) where I felt smooth and fast, thanks to those MTB skills. 17th.

1/2/3
Well... what can I say? 3rd race of the day. Wasn't expecting anything other than: payout of 15 deep, and only 15 people registered (only 6 when I registered. I guess many had the same idea.) I was toast from the gun. Got lapped, but got 15th and got paid a small amount for being last. The only thing keeping me from dropping out was a friend yelling "YOU'RE STILL IN THE MONEY!!!" the whole race. Thanks, PH.

I did a total of 20 laps of the course- somewhere between 25 and 30 miles and at least 2:45 of muddy 'cross racing in one day. I'll never do that again.