Get it over with

(a) See poll in right sidebar.

(b) Bash out a race report before bed:

Pilarcitos CX #2 was at Candlestick Park beside the football stadium, on infill much like Sierra Point, only...softer. Greener. Inviting. And the course designers had done their best to make use of the earthworks, leading riders up and down several of the steep artificial banks. There were some really pleasant, smooth grassy bits, and then there were the bumps, the little hard bumps, hidden under grass...oh, bumpy on the rumpy...

After shirking double duty at least weekend's CCCX race, I wasn't letting myself out of doubling up in the B's and singlespeed races this week. Singlespeed came up first, following the wave of the Men's A field. With only about a dozen SS starters, it was nice and wide open. After my trademark slow start, I started reeling in people after a couple laps, which was really satisfying, but the short, steep climbs started to grind me down: my 42/18 gear was just long enough to spin up nicely on the straight and flat, not so much on hills.

It was a long race (60 min), so I got in 8-9? laps--leaders minus one, I got lapped by the lead trio of A's about halfway through. Somewhere in there, I had a spectacular dismount failure and literally slid into a barrier on my butt, which got all sorts of attention from spectators who heard the resounding thunk and expected to see body parts flying off. Happily (sort of), the only thing flying off was my ever-diminishing pride...

Finished off the SS race, then had 10 minutes to prep for the Men's B race. This was, is, and will be less than ideal. Oh well. Had half a bottle of Gatorade and a gel, swigged some water, swtiched bikes and headed out for more.

The B start was much busier with much more contact--there's no shame in that field about cutting people off, and I spent a couple seconds having a good tire rub with a bike that swerved not-quite-in front of me. Major clusters happened at the first corner, the first hill, the first barriers...In a couple of places, my top-secret strategy of using the SS race to scout the course worked very well and I could scoop a couple positions by timing a good dismount-run-remount, very satisfying, very 'cross-skillful-feeling. However, it was getting to be a long day...

Judging from the results sheet afterwards, mid-race, I was about middle of the pack, 30th to 35th out of 60. On the large up-down-Uturn-up-down after the start, I had felt a little twitch in my thigh, a little twitch of overworked muscle...On the same lap, approaching the runup, I just touched the little stump of a bush on the right side. I started twisting to keep my balance, but oh, ow, ow, OW---

The Crampster.

Cramp-o-rama.

Leg cramping in the middle of a bike race.

The Cramp-inator.

I promptly dropped like a tranquilized rhino into the remains of said bush. Nice, long, springy branches, good for supporting an inert body. No thorns, thank heavens. A couple of heads-up spectators got my bike out of the way (I was now outside the course tape). All the folks I had spent the past thirty minutes passing then came by, and I can only wonder if they noticed me curled up in the fetal position in a bush in the middle of the race.

Well, my calf calmed down somewhat, and I could keep going. The last couple laps were pretty sedate, molto tranquillo, and the race leader mercifully lapped me and ended my pain. Still, I wasn't last--just, like, 52/61 or so.

Lesson: doing SS and B's back-to-back is quite doable, and I don't think my results suffered terribly, aside from the cramp. Unlike in a one-off race or in two races with a 2-3 hour break between, though, fuelling is necessary, starting in the first race. Whoever doesn't look busy two weeks from now is getting recruited for hand-ups!

The other sorta sucky thing is that all that racing does get in the way of socializing, and I hadn't more than a word or few with all the cool cats who show up to the 'cross races. Merci beaucoup to OV and the QB for letting me crash their tent--the shade felt so good post-race, mm-mmmm.