race report: Palos Meltdown.

(photo: CAMBR gallery)
Wow. Being part of a small team and usually racing in Wisconsin, I'd never known what a hometown race feels like. Until yesterday.

By 8am Half Acre had a tent up, 8 people registered, and a dog playing frisbee. 4 of our riders toeing the line had never raced trail before, one had never been on a mountain bike before, and three were on cyclocross bikes. In the beginner race, Dave, who had never ridden trail before and lined up on his newly-built cross bike, was visibly shaking from nerves but ended up winning his age group and taking third overall. Naz, also new to trail and on a cx rig, was 5th overall and age group 1st, and Adrian (in photo with Dave) was 6th overall and age group second. Amanda took an age group 2nd and- get this- complained about the lack of technical singletrack, since she's used to the WEMS courses now! Dan also finished strong though a little farther back after a crash on his new sexy carbon CX bike. Either way, what a showing. Half Acre, represent!

Me, I went to the line slightly terrified but 30 lb lighter and in seriously better shape than last year. I didn't know any of the women in Sport, and after a few introductions but not having any idea of what to expect, we were off. We hit the singletrack in a pack of five, riding together for almost half a lap. The climbs were brutal, and it was strange riding with folks more used to normal trail ettiquette than race rules - not knowing when or how to pass put us in long trains and caused slow pileups. Two of the women, Kathryn and Liz, were chugging uphill far stronger than me, two others, Jenny and Nancy, were slower but clearly knew the trails better and caught me on the singletrack. It took almost a lap for me to decide where I wanted to be, but once I decided who should be behind me, I enforced.

I came through on the lap with Jenny in front of me and downed a gu. Then, the crowd erupted. I'd never heard cheering like that before with my team out on the course, and I did a little playing for the crowd, throwing off some high-5's and shouting back at people. I passed Jenny there in the grass and climbed up that grass hill strong, straight to more high-5's and put some time between us before we hit the singletrack. And I didn't look back. Lap 2 I was on my own and I just let it flow. Walked nothing but two or three steps out of the first ravine, let my hub's killer bees fly. Zoom! What fun. I like racing so much more when there's nobody in front of me and I can set my own pace. Knees hurt a little from grinding uphill- did the whole race in the middle ring- but nothing terrible.

Anywho, I came into the clearing for the finish with no women in sight, and that was that. Liz was in my age group and had me by a bit, I was 4th woman overall (of how many? 6?) and 3rd aka last in my age group. Yet I felt like an actual contender, I was actually racing. And everyone was so freaking cool and shouty and supportive- teammates, folks who watched me fail last year, bloggy buddies, even complete strangers. It was awesome. Thank you all. And super thanks to Helge for the finish line Half Acre handup.

Oh, and teammate Zach rode a MTB for the first time ever in Sport and took 6th in his age group- insane! Hopefully he's another convert.

Then Ben raced. Ignore what he tells you. True, he did an hour effort, which is what he's now expecting of himself, but the truth is he ate one donut at 7am and nothing else before race time. Naturally he bonked and 3 laps in collapsed in front of the tent. I think he ate 2 gu packets and a thing of clif blocks before he stood up again. Duh.

Tim also raced expert, since all other categories were full before he hit day-of registration. He finished two strong laps and put in a good effort, which was rad. Took guts to toe the line with the expert group and he did it with class and aplomb.

Three cheers for CAMBR and hometown racing. Fan-effing-tastic. Three teammates went home promising to buy trail bikes and try dirt racing next season. Yessssss.