Amesbury Cross

Not really much to say about this one. I got there at 9am with CTodd so he could race the master's 3/4, and rode around a bunch, did a lot of laps on the course. Then Bruce let me play around on his singlespeed, why don't any women race on singlespeeds? They're so much fun! I want one! All told, maybe 2-2.5hrs on bikes. Did I eat anything? No, I was too busy running around cheering people on. Driving home, I was sucking down the second half of a water bottle and I realized that was all I'd drunk all day...

The race starts, we hit the first off road section and suddenly I can't see shit because of all the dust. Came into the barriers in the midst of things, then slowed down a little since I wanted to ride negative splits, or something like that. Then people started going past me, and while at first I tried to tell myself that I was just going to ride my own race, I quickly realized I felt weak. Really weak. And then I realized I hadn't eaten anything since that oatmeal I had for breakfast at 7am. And then I ate a gu, because I had one in my pocket. I figured I would just ride slow until the sugar kicked in.

Then I realized my heart was doing what I've always called "the fluttery heart syndrome", its sort of an arrhythmia thing that happens once every couple years and always freaks me out, and the only thing to do then is to sit down until it passes. So, I sat down. Jen, Josh and Giulia happened to be standing there and kind of freaked out as well, especially when I told them I'd just counted 45 beats in 10 seconds... So, I sat there for maybe 5-10 minutes, and then it felt normal again. I figured, well, I may as well ride out the lap, I'll see how I feel after that, I liked the course enough that I kind of felt like continuing to ride. Lynne Bessette had passed me when I was sitting in the dirt, then some more fast people, I started riding again just after Rebecca Wellons went by, and slowly got lapped by the rest of the field. I decided that I didn't feel like finishing last, and I knew that the girl in last hadn't been moving that fast when she went by me, so I started "racing". With 1 to go I caught her, so I kind of coasted through the last lap.

Overall, a sucky race, and entirely my own fault. But I had some amazing ice cream afterwards. I'm sensing a theme...

Pictures coming.