Starcrossed '08

Today was the kickoff for my '08 cross season. Last year Starcrossed was my first race ever and my only goal was to avoid getting lapped. This time around I'm a newly-minted cat 3 and my goal was to place in the top 20.

I woke up to dreary, drizzly weather and cool temps. Ah, autumn has arrived. I've never really raced in the rain before so I wasn't too enthused (at first). Eric packed up the car while I packed up my clothes and off we went. We tried setting up a couple tents but found it was much nicer (and drier) under the picnic shelter at the park. A number of other racers had the same idea and it got pretty chaotic with wheels, trainers and gear everywhere.

Fortunately I was on the ball and pre-registered a month ago- the starting lineup was based on registration dates and I wound up in the second row...out of nine or ten. The race started with a bang and off we went. I was fifth going onto the course but that ended about halfway into the first lap. I stayed around 10 for a while but was passed by a few girls. The course was 99% wet bumpy grass and at this point my goal was to just stay upright. I could hear the announcer saying things like "number X just went down" or "whoa, that's gonna leave a mark" so I was pretty cautious going into turns and the barriers.

Finally, the last lap came around and I tried to crank it up a bit. As I approached the finishing stretch another rider came up and we sprinted for the finish. I think I edged her out along with another racer that was in front of us.

I took 12th out of ? (63 finished but I'm not sure how many started..last I heard it was 77) . Last year I finished 39th out of 51. Click here for a few more photos.