More Photos from Sunday

First Cross Race of the Season

Today was a great day. I went into today's race hoping for a top 10, especially after taking the cross bike for a spin yesterday and falling pretty hard during a dismount. After the fall my confidence was pretty much shot and my knee and shoulder were hurting. Today I lined up with 30 women at the Charm City Cyclocross race in Baltimore, the largest cross race in the Midatlantic. I had a horrible start, probably the worst start I've ever had in a race but I quickly made up for it and worked my way up to 5th place. In the 3rd lap I managed to pass 4th and that's where I stayed. I'm somewhat disappointed that I couldn't catch 3rd because I was sooooo close, but I'm extremely happy because it's the best performance I've had at a cross race yet.

In other news, the women of Capitol Hill Bikes are trying to get sponsored by Cherry Pharm. If you have any ideas about a sponsorship proposal, please let me know.

Here are some pics from today. (Thanks Sonja!)

Toad

Tuesday evening Sonja and I were riding home along the Capital Crescent Trail when suddenly we spotted a very large toad sitting in the middle of the path. Unfortunately for the poor fellow, he had been run over by a cyclist. He was still alive and actually appeared to be none the worse for wear. Sonja moved him to a grassy area beside the trail and constructed a barrier out of sticks to keep him from coming back on the bike path. Fast forward to tonight. Sonja has been concerned about the toad so we decided to see if he was still there, which of course means he was dead, or not there, which could mean lots of things. Well, good news, he was not there. We like to think that he hopped happily away, not the darker scenario that some other critter snatched him up in his injured state.

This picture is from tonight's ride and is not the same toad from Tuesday. This is another toad that Sonja almost ran over. In fact, this one is only about a third of the size of that one. We also removed him from the trail. In fact we performed 2 toad rescues on our way home tonight.

Marathon

So I need to run another marathon. I took some time off from running to concentrate on cycling, but now I want to run again. It's the perfect time... offseason, cool weather. There's nothing like a nice long run on a cool morning. A Jan/Feb marathon gives me enough time to train, and it's over with before the cycling season takes off again. Here are the one's I'm considering:

• PF Chang's Rock and Roll Marathon Phoenix, AZ on 1/13
• Tybee Marathon Tybee Island, GA on 2/2
• Myrtle Beach Marathon in SC on 2/16
• Mardi Gras Marathon New Orleans, LA on 2/24

I'm leaning towards Phoenix (Sonja and I have friends there) or New Orleans (for various reasons). Any thoughts?

Website of the Day

http://www.helium.com/

Random Shots from the Turkey Day Race 2007

No pics of me because no one took any!!!

The start of the Women's Open race...

The Men's Cat 3 Bar 1st (Mike) and 2nd (Jose) place...

The Brothers Lumm...

Check out these Turkey Legs...

The sprint for the line in the Women's Open race...

My website of the day

http://www.ibelieveindog.com

Cross Season

Cross season is upon us and I am excited. I have a new bike thanks to Capitol Hill Bikes http://www.capitolhillbikes.com and it rocks. It's an Eddy Merckx, you know, the Belgian superstar of cycling. I figure that I have to be good at cross on a Belgian bike considering cross is practically the national sport of Belgium. I took it for a little spin on Monday and Tuesday and realized that my form from last year is rusty. The dismounts are at best ok, but my remounts are poor. Thank dog that I have a cross clinic coming up and only one race before that.

Weekend Wrap

The final 2 races of the MABRA season were this weekend. Going into them I had no real goals... just to keep the rubber side down. I had already secured a share of the BAR, and while it would have been nice to notch a win, I just didn't have the desire. Besides, I've got cross on the brain.

Saturday's road race was a real snooze for the first 3 laps. I was on the front most of the time with Pam from DC Velo and Liz from Hunt Valley. I know I shouldn't be riding on the front but no one else was willing. At least from the front I can cover any moves that go up the road, which is exactly what happend on the fouth and final lap. Erin from Artemis and Cynthia from AVMC got a little gap and I was a bit boxed-in at the time so I didn't react immediately. My mistake because that move happend to be the one. Amanda from Artemis bridged-up and they dropped Cynthia like a bad habit. A good pace line formed with me and 5 others. (Kudos to the HPC rider for being such a quick study in pacelining.) We caught Cynthia just before the finish and I got second in the field sprint for 4th overall.

Sunday's race went well too. I won't bore you with the details, but I led-out my teammate for third. I rolled in at 12th.

I have pictures from Sunday that I will post later.

The absolute best thing about the weekend was the fact that I had so many people approach me about joining the team. They like the way we work, always willing to have our noses in the wind. I have to admit, we are a pretty good bunch of women, and if things keep on going like they're going, we'll have one heck of a team next year.

Rider down

Sonja on the ground after the Wilmington Grand Prix. Thanks to Peg F, Leslie J, Robin Z, and the unknown Verducci Breakaway rider for helping her out. You guys were there immediately. And thanks to all the spectators for their concern and watching the 3 dogs while we were tending to her. And a huge THANK YOU to the EMT's that responded. You guys are top-notch. Sorry if I forgot anyone, but I was late on the scene.