Cold and snowy

Today was the U-23 race down here in KS, for cross nationals. Yesterday Sean and I were going to ride the course, but refrained because it was a couple inches of mud deep the whole way around. So we just rode around the area in general. Last night it got down to 20 or something so everything froze, then it snowed. It created an interesting surface for racing. Lots and lots of frozen ruts, covered with snow. Bike handling skills were tested to the max. I did not do so great...
As I mentioned it was cold, at least not bike riding weather. Despite that I was still kinda excited to race. At 10 we were off onto a slushy start road. People were going down here and there and I was having trouble holding any line. The race spread out real fast, I just tried to ride my bike. Which I did a bit too slow. For a while in the middle I was riding pretty well. I was catching people and having lots of fun. Then on one of the run ups my left shoe randomly fell off. I guess it was not on tight enough, even though it felt like it was tight. Needless to say that changed my race a bit. It took me a few steps to realize what the heck had happened. When I did I stopped, dropped my bike and had to go back and put my shoe back on. That took away my rhythm and I just could not get back into it after that. Within the next 2 laps I got lapped and it was game over. Oh well...
I really enjoyed the course, even with the ruts. But unfortunately I was only allowed to enjoy it for a few laps (they were long). The I got lapped and pulled, oh well.

I even made cyclingnews.com!

Tomorrow is the collegiate race.