CycloCross Tis Upon Us

Ah yes. Fall is in the 105 degree dry air. Leaves are a falling and being crunched upon, birds are a silent and hiding in the cool shade of trees, dust is a flying and tubulars are a churning.
Actually, tubulars were not "a churning". This little first race of the season caught us off guard and snuck up quickly so we both raced on clinchers. Which led to a few skid outs on the fast, flat corners.
My goals? Let's see, my goals... My goals were to race hard and not talk or yell at my kids in the middle of my race. After all, it was the first race of the season and really just a little tune up. I wasn't expecting too much out of myself.
We got there late, having not prepared what-so-ever the night before. We figured we could wing it since it was only a half hour drive from Oakland.
Mom, what kind of snacks did you bring? I was asked by the 8 year old.
Snacks? I said.
Yeah snacks, she said.
Did you even bring us snacks? asked the 10 year old.
Snacks? I said.

May I suggest not winging it and not getting to a race 25 minutes before your start time. And always bring kid snacks to a bike race if you have kids, even if you're winging it.
That's THE number one rule in the "Bike Racing With Kids 101" handbook. Actually it's number one AND number eight.
1) Bring snacks
2) Bring toys
3) Bring kid bikes
4) Bring hats and handiwipes
5) Bring water
6) Bring water guns to 105 degree bike races
7) Bring extra kid clothes
8) Bring more snacks
9) Be ready to bribe with ice cream when you want to stay and watch the later races
and almost as important as bringing the kid snacks...
10) Pack all this stuff into the car the night before, not 10 minutes before you're leaving on the day of the race while the kids are whining and complaining about having to get up so early to go to a stupid bike race.

Once there, in warp speed motion - I pee'd, registered, pee'd, got dressed, pee'd, drank more water, pee'd, got Lulu to put her helmet on, pee'd, put my helmet on, pee'd and then rode back over to the registration line to pick up my number that they hadn't had yet when we registered, got my number pinned, pee'd, ate a few GUs, surveyed & questioned those who had pre-ridden the course, drank some water and then made my way to the start.

Luckily the race seemed to be on the same schedule we were on - a little late. Things changed a bit at the start so as not to delay the rest of the start times throughout the day and all the women were started at once with all the juniors.
The C men started about a minute behind us.

I must say, it worked fine this way. The men were all very courteous and nice as they passed and the juniors were little enough to ride right over.
We started out pretty slow. In fact, it was the slowest start in a race that I'd ever experienced. Or maybe It was me who felt slow - moving in slow motion. Or maybe it was the juniors leading the pack and all the courteous women behind them. Or maybe, it was just because it was 95 degrees out at 9:10 am and it was the first race of the fall season.
Anyway, we split immediately with about 6 or so women right in front of me and then a gap behind me and another 9 or 10 behind me. And that's how it stayed pretty much the entire race. I tried to keep my teammate Jenny in eye sight just ahead of me and slowly but surely made my way past two more women during the course of the race.

We raced and raced. And it was as hot as hell, skidding around, taking gravel corners too fast on clinchers, running up a million stairs, dry heaving, coughing up hairballs, hippin' and a hoppin' over barriers, riding and running through sand.
On the first lap, one of my kids yelled at me. WHERE'S DAD? I CAN'T FIND HIM. And I NEED him now!
Well shit I thought, there goes my first goal. Please don't ask me questions now, I politely and gently cooed back while smiling and waving sweetly.
But I was wondering the same thing as I started the second lap. I think I'd like some water now please, I was thinking to myself.

At the stairs I saw Tom, husband of teammate Jenny, and he poured some water on me and gave me some to drink.
At the end of second lap, I saw my other kid, who was picking up a bottle from someone else but he saw me too late and the bottle he tried to hand me went flying. Wait mom, here, now I have it I heard from behind me.

Third lap bottle hand off was similar. The smaller child, Lulu was too short for me and our hand-off went a flying.
Finally, 4th lap I got a perfect hand off from Morgan. Perfect! Dear Morgan, my sweet husband. And I drank lots in case it happened to be the last good hand off for a while.
It all went so fast. And it all was so fun. And in the middle of it all after a few dry heaves, I even had a few seconds to think to myself, jeezus, this is SO much FUN and I must have been smiling because as I came to the sand someone yelled out, if you're smiling you're not racing hard enough!

And then it was over.