Lilypons - pond = mud

I broke my own rule of preparedness. Despite handing out a list at a clinic of what to bring to a cx race, I completely forgot what to bring to Ed Sanders. Despite telling the other girls to always be preapred for anything because you never know when the weather will change....We left VA and it was cool and sunny. I only brought a skinsuit, jersey, shorts, helmet, shoes. The bare minimum for a cx race. Yeah it's a local race, so that was my lame excuse. Judd kindly packed our mud boots and then informed after we were 20min from home that it is raining in MD. WHAT? Rain? In the end it wasn't really that bad and it was muddy in some spots, but in general, we've endured worse (which was Evo cx at the pumpkin farm years ago) or maybe Hagerstown....hmmmm mud...

Okay so the pic is obviously not from Ed Sander's cx race - it's from Nittany cx last week - which already seems like so long ago.

The drive to Lilypons is one of our shortest of the season - other than the 5min race from my house in Dec. The Styers were already at the race and set up with the Velo Bella tent and gear. Morgan was grinning and excited about his race. Alicia was getting ready to start. Hilary was excited about getting her own Velo Bella cx frame. Ethan was preparing his podium boy look. They are one of the most supportive familes I've ever known, between racing, wrenching, cheering.

I headed out for a warmup and saw Bellas Nikki and Marisa pre-riding the course and with huge smiles as Nikki exclaimed how muddy it is. The Bellas did great. DD won, I rolled in for 4th, and in the women's 3/4 cx Nikki and Marisa both did awesome and had a decent sized beginner field (twice the size of the elite).

Next up is the Hagerstown Breast Cancer Awareness race and the Kelly Acres cx race, both local MABRA series races.

Eat your fruits and veggies, but not trees

Allergies. It seems everyone who moves to DC gets them. And it seems every year they get worse. Is anyone immune?

Growing up I used to make fun of my cousins who had to get allergy shots - thinking I was superior and more healthy. They all "out grew" their allergies and me on the other hand, grew into mine.

I was the outdoorsy kid playing in the woods, running through the bushes, eating dirt. My favorite spots to play - the backyard under the Birch tree where I'd write stories on the paper bark and sometimes make birchtree-tea, and the front yard where I'd collect the pretty fall colors from the Maple tree and suck on the ends of the leaves thinking they would taste like maple syrup. I loved trees.

Allergies. It all started on a fall bike ride in college....we stole some apples from an orchard and stuffed our jerseys full of them. One of the orchard people caught us and chased us down with her truck yelling at us to stop stealing her apples and that they were sprayed with poison. We didn't believe her. We did let most of the apples fall out of our jerseys but did keep a few. That afternoon while enjoying my golden delicious, I cursed the lady as my mouth started to itch and then blistered. Ever since then, I noticed anytime I ate apples, cherries, plums, nectarines - the same thing. I thought it was the pesticides they used and my body was just too sensitive to it.

Well I swore that pesticides were the issue and was so frustrated when my recent attempt at 5 a day fruit/veggie campaign turned into a failure when even organic fruits and veggies were making my throat itch. So with no fruits left to eat, I went to the allergist to confirm that I am indeed destined to have to eat a meat based diet (despite growing up as a pseudo-vegetarian).

It figures the doctor's never heard of someone having these issues despite me hearing the same issues from other people. Even the allergist reported that I'm not allergic to fruit. WHAT? However I did find out that I am allergic to something I didn't suspect. She told me I am allergic to trees! That didn't make any sense. Then she went on to explain that whenever I ate certain fruits - such as apples and cherries, my body thought I was eating birch tree. But I told her when I did eat birch tree as a kid I didn't have a reaction. She looked at me like I was crazy. Anyway, turns out it's more common than I realized, and fairly recently is the connection being made as a cross-pollen confusion in the body. Weird.

And it also turns out I'm allergic to nearly everything else too. Nice! I just thought it was normal to constantly have a runny nose and itchy throat and trouble breathing. Oh and to break out in hives after letting a cute little puppy lick you all over......

Here's a link to an article about Oral Allergy Syndrome.

I hope this gives other fruit suffers some temporary relief.

First Weekend of MAC

Sunday - long drive to Allentown for MAC opener, UCI C2. Was thrilled to see teammates Anna M back racing after breaking her leg at Bike Jam in May and DD back to racing after a year off - being a mom again. The MAC elite is a whole new field this year with some of the New England gals coming down and with the B women that have graduated to elite and some new faces to cx like Laura Van G. It was really exciting to see so many 'new riders' to the elite (or returning riders like Alicia H on Sun and Mandy L on Sat). The race was a great reminder of how intense cyclocross racing is - nothing like road races or mtn bike races - it really is its own thing. Cyclocross is go at anaerobic or VO2 and enjoy the few short 10sec recoveries for a total of 40+ minutes; and you have to be mentally alert the whole time or you'll wipe out overcooking a turn or kill your legs by not being in the right gear going up a short little rise. Oh yeah and if you blow your start it sucks having to try to get past people in tight corners that are bottlenecks within the first 300m of the race, but that is cyclocross. And don't forget to unclip before barriers and to lift you bike up all the way. And for peat sake - don't drag your bike through the sand.

In the elite women's race Mo took off from the gun and was gone from the field for a while until Anna, DD, and LVG were able to form a little group and battle on - ending with LVG catching Mo on the last lap, and DD taking 3rd, Anna 4th. Nikki T, Arley and I made up the second group and exchanged leads for a little bit before Arley, riding a terrific race looking smooth and strong, was able to put time into us and finished for 5th. Me 6th.

In the B women's race Christina B did fantastic and finished 2nd. Hilary and Alica and Morgan all raced too. Also making the long drive was Randy R joining Judd in the Elite Master's field.

Sunday - Charm City, 400+ pre-reg'd! No UCI, but the new classic of Mid-Atlantic - dare I say more so than Granogue? Maybe not yet. Another perfect day in Baltimore, hot as usual, tons of spectators, and food, and just all around fun to hang out. Judd and I got there in time to set up our chairs and sit by the course cheering on the first race of the day. No other sport can I think of going to sit and watch it all day under a shady tree in a pretty park and just purely enjoy it - almost like being at the beach.

Saw a whole bunch of new riders in the women's B field including first time cx racers and attendees of the women's DC CX clinic Trish, Mary Alex, Kathy and a few others all did great. Teammate Marisa, who loves cyclocross as much as I, was out there too looking strong and happy this year. The Carolina twins, all grown up, came up to race. The Coppi girls started out strong with Jean commanding lead for half the race before getting a flat, Lindsey was moving up and in great position when tackled by a tree branch getting caught in her gears, and Sioban was looking smooth out there too. But as it goes with cyclocross there is a little bit of bad luck that adds another element of fun to the endeavor. In the end Kristina A took the win and Christina B, overcame a challenging start and moved up through the whole field to another great finish.

Cyclocross may seem a little cliquey but it's really not - it's more like an extended family reunion. It was great to see all the Coppi guys, the Lea's, the Wittwer's, the Wiss guys, Anderson, Erler, Randy, Masse, Buchness, Huhn, Carlson, Hunter and on and on - guys I've "grown up with" on the racing circuit for the past 9years or guys I ride with occasionaly on the Tues/Thurs group rides. Out of the women, other than Tracey Lea, Anna M, and Tammy Ebersole, I think we are the only women that are still doing the MAC races after all these years. Back in the old days there was only 1 women's field and it was about 20 women, and I consistently was finishing in the back of the pack, second to last or so, and slowly started to get the hang of it over the years and still have sooo much to learn. I wonder what ever happened to some of those gals.

In the elite women's race at Charm City, we had more pre-reg'd than the men's elite. I love it when that happens. DD and LVG quickly set pace at the front and pulled away for their own duel. Beth Mason had a great start and was riding the best I've seen her ride until she got stuck with a flat at the worst time, Arley took third by opening up time in the corners on Nikki T and I on the flats. I must admit the past few years I had been riding in no man's land and have to learn how to battle and be more aggressive for position and for the better lines. After all it is bike racing and not a grass TT. But not so aggressive I lose control. A massive slide out on one of the corners set me out for a good bit of time allowing 2 riders to pass - including Heidi, who finished 6th, who was riding an awesome race - really strong, consistent, and smooth. It was nice to have the confident Heidi back. I finished the race in 7th. Sonja made her cx race on a cx bike debut - I sware she's gonna get hooked - watch out girls the C3 empire is a threat. And Terri and Liz made their elite race debut after killing the B fields last year. Mandy snook away from Johnny (who was racing in DC) to play with us gals on the bikes. She looked great and looked happy - I hope she felt the same after the dusty suffer fest that was today.

It was a nice start to the season and fun to see familiar faces again - faces we'll see every weekend until Christmas. Great job to everyone.

Thanks to Wendy for host-housing. And a shout out to my CycleLife gals who were hanging out with the pro-men and marshalling in DC.

Thanks to those of you that donated items for the Special Olympics Juniors Day out for next week. The Lea's were much appreciative.

Cyclocross season started at 1am!

It's here. I was giddy all weekend for the transition. My bags are already packed for this coming weekend MAC CX opener - Nittany CX and Charm City. Although the bikes are still in disarray and I'm a little outta shape compared to a few weeks ago and not even sure if I'm able to handle a 40min cx race right now.

This season will once again have Judd and I travelling the east coast. The focus is on east coast USGP and the MAC series and filling in with whatever UCI races are nearby (which may mean a 10hr drive). Will pick up a few local MABRA races here and there if not travelling. The new venue for us will be opting to go to OH this year rather than the old Gloucester, MA classic. And now that Hendersonville NC is UCI again (since last I heard) I'll get to make 3 weekends of 10 hour drives to races (with Louisville and Hendersonville being my 2 favorite double venues and towns by far).

It's a long season (but not in terms of time) so I'm planning to ease into it and not burn out or get sick in November. In general, I'm looking for a good time, and staying happy, not little Ms Negativity. Although I want good results, I'm going to try to not get too frustrated if things don't go my way. Instead I'm focusing on riding a smooth hard race rather than focusing on the final placing.

Thinking long term here - hoping to score a few good USGP races worthy of enough self confidence to venture to Europe in December and January to see how the other half race and use that experience to carry me on into 2009. At which point I'll be ready to join my ladies again for an awesome road season.

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Hopefully this past weekend was the last HOT weekend of the year - a nice way to end the road season. I'll miss my teammates and friends who prefer the smooth pavement but it will be that time soon again come March.

I-95 Romance

It started out much to fast
with your front-end up my ....

I lovingly gazed upon you in my mirror
and wished you'd learn to drive or steer.

As you nearly hit me with your pass
you jackass!

It started out much to fast
but then sitting in traffic for miles, it now would last.

A little romance on the drive
I saw you give your friends a high-five.

With waving flags and empty beer can,
I could tell, you're a true football fan.

You made my heart pump with the beating of your base,
the sound of your hemi, and smell of your exhaust in my face.

Leaning out the window with out a care,
gently brushing the top of the sill was your armpit hair.

You smiled at me from across the lane
Surely you are in sane.

Before flipping the bird, I blew you a kiss,
this romance I sure will miss.

As you sped away and hurried past
I knew this romance would not last.