A week late

State CX was last weekend. Not quite the results I was hoping for, but training took a backseat this fall. I did as well as I expected to do. Despite not performing up to par, the race was fun, tons and tons of people out watching. Always a good time, hands down my favorite race of the year for and discipline.

Barriers

The delightful stairs.

Sandpit, Round 2.

My 2009 season has now been over for a week. I had planned to take a bit of a break, but the weather has been so damn nice that I just needed to go play outside. A few runs during the week and a good MTB ride yesterday, with a nice long ride with Timmer today. Had a nice chat about divorce and smells, really quite interesting. Nearly 3.5 hours of suburbia, endless I tell ya, endless...

School has been busy, great fun of course. I will shortly be a CPR/First Aid instructor, and will gladly teach some classes, if you want to get involved, lemme know.

Found one!

The winning crash.

Thanks for entertaining us Mr. Doig, and hopefully you are not too beat up.

Sugar High, and Northfield CX

It's been a busy weekend. Saturday was up at my Grandmother's farm looking for Bambi, he eluded me and sadly no venison for the freezer. One of these days... Once it got hot, the deer all went into hiding, no point hunting. So it was off to Northfield to set up course for the return of The Back To School CX race. Starting at 5 Ben, myself, and a some Olaf ski team members helped us set up course. Finished up there about 8:30, ate some dinner, then met a friend and did not get to sleep till 12:30. 5:30 AM to then is quite a long day.

No wonder I could not find the deer. They hid here.

Today started at 7. Back to Olaf to reset up the course after drunks pulled a good portion of it down, and soon enough it was time to race. A beautiful day, and a great turnout was all I could ask for. For sure the most successful race we have had there. Including the most spectators ever. Course changed up a bit, I tried to make the hill easier, I am not quite sure if it was easier, but the course as a whole was more entertaining. It was very possible to ride the whole thing without getting off you bicycle, which many of the A racers did. Standard barriers are over rated.
I know there are some good videos of crashes and then "Pinwheel of Death," I'll collect them all and try to put an entertaining video together.
Congrats to Chris Doig for winning the best crash award.

Oh yeah, sugar high... It seems all I have come across to eat today involves way to much sugar. Cookies, rice crispy bars, coffee/hot chocolate, sports beans... No wonder my personal race sucked! I have never cramped up that bad during a cross race, and besides death cramps, was one of the top crampy races ever. After one of the bunny hops Both calfs froze up and I could only coast...

Some photos.

Pinwheel
Bike race! Even a good turnout for the A race.
Mr. Dan Swanson can fly.
So can young Jack. Not everyone though...
But he sure cleared the barrier.
I had fun too.
Must have been a close one there.
Hollywood

I did not enjoy the hill so much this year, thanks to Linda and the other guy getting me up.

Results

Thanks to everyone who came out today, and especially to Ben Witt of Milltown, St. Olaf, the St. Olaf Nordic Ski Team for all there help, Rawland Cycles, and anyone else who helped out! I'm sure it'll happen again. And until then, plan for another visit to Northfield for the 4th of July, big things are in the works.

School is cool

But first a short recap.
Jackson Meadows a few weeks back. Felt alright but lots of mechanical issues. Anyone want to buy all my SRAM stuff?


Last weekend was one of my favorite races up in Taylors Falls. The course was not quite as fun as usual, but still not bad. I got pushed way way to the back at the start, and spent the rest of the race trying to move up. It only kinda worked.
Halloween, was as usual a good time.

2 weekends left in the season for me I think. My ass hurts, time for some off season.

Ever since starting school, I have not really enjoyed it much. Olaf had some good classes that I did indeed enjoy (being there was a blast). But actually enjoying almost everything I am learning (or supposed to be) is a new experience for me. Today we got into starting IVs on each other, luckily the program is smart and limits us to being stabbed max. 3 times a day. It'll add up though. So if you do see my arms and they are full of holes, yes, I have been playing with needles. And no, I am not doping or doing other illegal activities!