OVCX-Cap City Cross-Ohio State Cross Championships - Lane Road Park - Upper Arlington, Ohio

It's over, I made it. My season is over. thank you thank you thank you.
What a race today - with a bit of a schedule delay, our race went off about 40 minutes late.
....finally a week or so later - Thanksgiving got in the way.
The big kahuna, all the marbles, my eggs in one basket, the final countdown, the last straw, the swiss army knife of races. Or just the last cyclocross race of the season, just the Ohio State Cyclocross Championships is all! What a day it turned out to be. The sun came out and the temperature actually went somewhere, besides down. After some forethought, I decided that it might help matters if I warmed up on the trainer at home, a grand advantage when the racecourse is only 20 min by car from my house. This was a good thing, but with a second family Thanksgiving on the same day, we rushed to make it out of the house by our projected 9:30 a.m. time. We wanted to be there early enough to see Tim and some other folks roll out for the men’s C/CAT 4 races. We arrive, and find a great parking spot on a side street just a stones throw from registration and a construction port-o-john in someone’s side yard. Sweet. Park – jog over to registration – wait 3 min –sign my name - get my race number – [wow, Race Promoter, Andy Johnson’s dad and wife are super efficient registration table people] then I run back to the car, number in tow. With the sun out, I can race with much less layers originally thought I would wear. This is good; overheating is bad during a race. I can bundle up, layer, then drop a pile of stuff at the start line. I now have plenty of time, to get some embrocation going, pin up the race number chat with a few folks by and in the car (with the heater blasting) and get my race face put together. While chatting with socialite, Mr. Gamm, I volunteer Jen to hit the wheel pit with my spare Mavic SL/Challenge Griffo’s and get on the bike for some spinning around to see how the legs feel. I wanted to roll around the grass boundary of the course and see how the grass looked for race day. One-day prior, I managed a pre-ride of the course on Saturday and check in with the race designers/organizers to see how things were playing out. Forward back to Race day; conditions look faster, the grass matted down and lines picked out by many other sets of tires. Hindsight, I believe I made a good choice going with the Planet X carbon wheels and my more narrow tubie tires, for the most part – more on this later. While I am out riding about, I see the current racers finish and squeak out on the course to check things out. There are two dicey spots on the backside of the hill, on the Lane Road side, that will need some body English, the right line, and possibly a sit and spin situation. One is a hard right turn off the bike path, the other is an off camber turn to the right that guided you into a pine tree if you picked the safer line. There were quite a few of the family watching Tim and I race. My parents, my in-laws, and Tim’s wife-Julie’s parents. It was great having them there for support for sure. I took some time during my warm up to hang out, chat, and feel the warmth. While hanging out, I hear the announcement they are running 45 minutes behind schedule for the Men’s B/CAT 3 race – WTF? Awww Come on. Now all my morning planning, EPO – my doping schedule is all off track – crap. Really – this is somewhat of an inconvenience, but not earth shattering – to self, “remember cross is fun, you are here for fun”. I calm down, calm my parents down, my wife does damage control and shuffles the group of family over to the coffee, dognut, tea tent, and I head back to the car for some heat and more socializing. Time flies and I am at the start line waiting for the sandbaggers to be ‘called up’ to the front row. Layne, Mike Riley, Mason, sandbagger 1, 2 and the maybe 3rd line up. I make my move and get a second row spot. We receive our regular USA Cycling Instruction from Mr. USA Cycling Guy and get a 1-minute warning. The one-minute flies while there is some joking around about putting some of these sandbaggers into the tape or a tree - It is game time. Tweeeeeet – the whistle is blown and we are off like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I get a great spot down the field of dreams sitting about top 12 over the big hill finish. Wow, good stuff, I try to rest, recover and relax, we make a few hard switchback turns and wind around. I am still sitting in top 12 or so….the group is starting to get away, fast, I see Joe Hall, Layne, Mason, Chewning and a few other familiar Team kits around me. I am not doing too badly – we wind around the backside of the baseball diamond fence and head south towards the tennis courts. We twist around and head back south – fly along the tennis courts and make a crazy slick left turn into the pine trees, make a quick tight single-trackish left then right, some grass then back out on the blacktop bike path that surrounds the entire Lane Road park. We follow the path north, hit the grass, fade downhill to the left, hit more blacktop, miss some low branches and slow-up for an off camber section into the grass – I am sitting in a great spot, guys are really pushing from behind and I am forced to take the inside line that was slick, frozen and barren – DOWN I go. Crap, that really hurt. I get up run up the hill as three- four people pass me. We go around a pine tree down a short steep hill, a hard 180 at the bottom, I shift my right lever which is now pushed way way in, and get out of the saddle to spin up, another 180 to the right and down to another 180 into a single barrier. Dang it- my hand is killing me. We head south again and away from my fall point then back towards the hill, where we serpentine around on the Lane Road side of the course that is getting direct sun and melting some very cold water out of the ground. We start at the bottom of the hill wind up it with some 180 degree switchbacks and manage to work towards a tough off camber section that peaks at the top, guys are behind me pushing – I get stuck where I didn’t want to be and crap Down I go again and now my hip, left thumb and index finger are throbbing like a Fred Flintstone cartoon thumb. I sail down the hill and head towards the 180 degree turn near our start line and go to it all over again, trying to regain my losses during my two crashes. I can see Joe Hall, Layne and Dave Groen all not too far ahead. At one point, maybe with thee laps to go I pass Joe Hall on the bike path, he looks popped, but then a lap later he comes flying by me like his ass was on fire. I can see Dave G in the short distance and try to ride as relentless as possible to close down the gap in the twisty bits – where I know he doesn’t do well. Ben Bonney is nowhere to be seen, I hear Mason’s name and a few other leader names being yelled out along the course and finally hear someone say, “Last Lap” as I roll over the hill for the last time. I give it everything I have, knowing this is the big one, the last time I can hurt myself like this for 2008, I catch I think a lapped rider on the last corner and hit as hard as I can across the field start area and up to the crest of the hill for the finish. I thought I might have been top 15. Nope. I managed a 17th place out of 41 guys. Not bad. I’ll take it. It was great to have family and cross friends supporting me out there on such a cold day.