Suckerbrook - 9/20 - Women's Reports
Congratulations to Joy and MaryLou who both participated in their first ever cyclocross races at Sucker Brook! We’re hoping to see them both out at more races as the season progresses.
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Conditions:
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Bright and sunny, 60’s.
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The Course:
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The course started with a long stretch of road and continued on to a very flat area with large grassy switch backs. The switch backs led in to downhill with a quick uphill with stairs. This continued on to a bridge and up a short power hill. After the power hill there were two barriers. Then it proceeded in to the woods and up a rocky hill, down a hill and out into a large sand pit. After the sand pit, there was another power hill and that led back to the road.
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Results:
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Junior 10-14 (14 starters)
Victoria Gates – 3rd
Women’s 3/4 (34 starters)
Jean Cunningham –21st
Joy Stark – 22nd
Loraine Warner – 26th
Julie Lockhart – 28th
MaryLou McPhee – 31st
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Reports:
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[Victoria Gates]
The day before the race I had gone to Todd Rowell’s cross clinic. I learned a lot of helpful skills there. The greatest resource I had was my grandmother who lives in Auburn five minutes away from the race. I slept over her house the night before and was able to sleep in. Once we got to the race I got my number and pre-rode the course. The conditions were cold and the ground was hard. By the time we started it had softened. At the start, I was shocked at how many kids there were. Moments before the race Jim Lockhart came over to me and told me to take the hole shot and act as if it was a start at the velodrome. A minute later the race was off and I went into the first corner in third position. The two leaders rode away and I was still in third. I pounded the flats and went up the stairs. I powered up the little hill and went over the barriers. In the woods I passed a bunch of women and some struggling cat 4 men. I ran the bike through the sand pit and went up the little hill. On the second lap I settled in and everything went good. On the final lap I went as hard as I could up the stairs and over the barriers. I sped up in the woods and ran across the sand pit. I sprinted up the small hill and gave it all I had at the finish. I crossed the line in third place. That race is one of my favorites.
[Joy Stark]
Sucker Brook was my first ‘cross race and I registered eager to find out why people seem to love it so much. I’ve been preoccupied with training for rowing this fall, so I hadn’t been able to ride my new ‘cross bike at all until I showed up to the excellent clinic that Todd, Chris, and Justin gave on Saturday morning. The clinic convinced me that I might be able to survive the race, even if I had to step over the barriers instead of run them. On Sunday, I arrived 2 hours before my race which left plenty of time to pre-ride the course and identify all of the spots where panic might set in. I convinced myself that I didn’t want to try riding up the little run-up after the wooden bridge, that I would definitely be taking fee-fi-fo-fum giant steps over the barriers, and that I would be running the first sandpit (I had determined that the second one was, for some reason, less objectionable).
I was feeling pretty ill on the starting line, but once we were off I resigned myself to getting through it. And once I got going, I forgot to be nervous in all of the spots that terrified me in the warm-up. I managed to dismount before I could face plant the stairs, and by telling myself to, “Commit, commit, commit,” I rode the little run-up on each lap without any problems. The barriers…let’s just say that they weren’t well executed on any of the laps, and will have to be a work in progress along with all of the other skills I learned on Saturday. On the first lap, after a particularly clumsy dismount, I ran the first sandpit and realized halfway through that I was suit-casing the bike instead of gracefully running with it on my shoulder. Oops. After that, I decided I would ride the sandpits on the next laps and did so without any problems. On each lap, my tires slid beneath me on the 180 degree turn after the second sandpit, which was an unsettling feeling, but it was good to learn that I could slide and still stay upright. Eventually, I started passing people and realized that I was probably going to finish the race without major incident, and I began to have fun! At the end of the third lap, I saw people ride off the course, but I wasn’t positive my race was over, so I kept riding until I noticed that no one on the course was racing. Then I tried to exit the course as nonchalantly as possible.
I was disappointed that the race was over so soon! I was also disappointed that I missed out on the cupcakes that were supposedly handed out…I guess the beer in Gloucester will have to make up for it.
[Loraine Warner]
My goal for this race was to jump-start my fitness, and try a new strategy, knowing that my fitness is sub-par. I usually empty the tank at the start and then quickly fade and fight the demoralizing as I get passed again and again. This time, I eased into the race, but of course that meant that I started already being in the back of the field. There was a great showing of women, but so much so that mass congestion at the first few corners made it near impossible for me to move up at all. So I just settled in and focused on good technique while operating at a high sustained level. I cheered on Jean and Joy who passed me in a blur, looking strong and collected :) I looked up and saw lap cards for the first time at 2 to go, and about half-way through the lap I got passed by the men’s leaders. At this point in my oxygen-deprived brain, sound judgment and simple math skills failed me and so I was thinking that I had 1 lap yet to go (2 laps to go, men pass me, removing 1 lap, means 1 lap to go), but I failed to remember that the men would’ve seen 1 lap to go where I had seen 2, and so I was actually on the last lap. Instead, thinking that I still had 1 more to go, I kept watch on the woman just in front of me thinking that I would conserve, and then empty the tank on the last lap, and pass this woman. When I crossed the S/F and there were no lap cards, I called out asking how many and they said I was done. Oops. I consider this race a success as I had fun with it, and I managed to ride the sand every lap :) Great job to all the ladies who came out for the race, and I was so happy to see Joy smiling at the end of it! :)
[Julie Lockhart]
Stellar course with some little changes to add interest. Start was OK, somehow had less energy on lap 1, seems like too little warmup. As I warmed up felt better and was closing in when I decided to try and ride the 1st sand – wrong word: try – fell, and lost some places, made two back up, but … ahh well: gotta work on the sand and decision making. Cross is too much fun! %-)
[MaryLou McPhee]
This was my first cross race and I had one goal to finish the race; I finished and was not dead last which was a bonus. It was a good time and now I can call it fun. Racing was definitely harder than cheering on the sidelines