October 11th was my first race of the season, and also being our 12th Wedding Anniversary my wife also decided to race as her first race ever. She did great coming in 3rd place in the Beginner Women's race, and she now knows how much pain cross involves when you are trying to go all out for as long as you can. I did the 3/4 race which was right after her race, so while I was running around trying to take pictures, it didn't give me much time to warm up. Oh well I lined up and was ready to go, got a decent start, and was in the pack for the first lap or so, but then started sliding back towards the back of the field and would just stay there for the rest of the race. I was able to catch and pass a couple people, but not making up any ground quickly. I think I ended up finishing around 14th or so out of 17. Was a great day though as we had cupcakes, and the wife and I dressed up, she had altered a dress and had her headpiece attached to her helmet, and I had a dress shirt we modified with a corsage on it, so we had a lot of fun with it.
2 weeks later would find us back in the Quad Cities for the second race in the Dice Series, and even though I was the only one racing today I decided to do the Masters 30+ race, one for the 60 minute race time for more training, and we didn't have to get up as early. We had gotten a bit of rain the week before, and there was one section that was sloppy, but for the most part it was fast and dry. I wanted to get a good start because in the earlier race the first corner claimed a few riders as it was a slick 90 degree left hander. I know going into this race I would be towards the back, and after 2 laps I was off the back of the 30+ and was back with some of the 40 and 50 guys, so I had people to ride with. I set out to just ride my own race, and not worry about position. I was finally feeling decent on the bike, so was able to put some power down to the pedals. Was a great day for a race, temps in the 50's and sunny, here is a video of me at the one barrier section http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0Xn3WASEW4
This past weekend was the first time I was able to get back on the bike and feel somewhat normal, I am still feeling the effects of being sick, trying to get rid of this before Jingle Cross Thanksgiving weekend. There are 2 races between now and then, and I will hopefully get updates up here sooner then 2 weeks.
As always pictures can be found here
