After enjoying racing down
South with Mikey the other week I decided to race one of the North West events. Chatting to Jen from work it turned out that work had a stand there so I was going to have a cheer squad! Originally I was going to drive over but Ali's plans would have meant an expensive train ride home so I told her to take the car and decided to ride to Irlam and get the train over.
It was a lovely morning and I had to take layers off on the way to the station, I was a little worried I was going to overheat as I was wearing tights, skins ones to see if they help me recover from the race as I have a big ride planned tomorrow.
The train turned up on time, I got to the race an hour before it started and signed on, got time for a lap of the course. It was so different to the one in the South-West! There was of course draggy grass but also some technical bits, two huge hills (well they felt like it when I was carrying my bike up) and some hurdles.
The start was hectic with nearly 130 of us in the race and I was a little worried it would be too busy. The first lap was spent racing another female rider and saying hi to people I hadn't seen for ages. Everytime I passed the BikeRight stand I got a huge cheer!
I felt I wasn't doing too bad a job of dismounting but the carry's were all at a walk, I think a couple of the top guys actually rode up which is impressive! I was lapped after two laps by the leaders and in total I did 5 laps. My average speed was lower than in the South West but that wasn't a suprise. Some of the grassy banks I really sturggled with my tyres just washing out, maybe I need mud tyres?
I really enjoyed it and I'm planning on a few more this season. Surely the more I do the faster I get? Average heart rate was 182bpm so I was certainly trying although there is the odd dip where I obviously wasn't pushing as hard. I also slowed near the end but I think that was as much to do with the course as me.
Results are out and I was 2nd female out of 8 and 83rd out of 118 finishers.
So you're abandoning the plans of selling the cross bike then? ;o) Told you it would only take one race for you to get all enthusiastic again!!
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