188: lucky number seven

Saturday at the MAC opener (puma cross), one of my worst nightmares came to fruition. Diane took off during her race had a strong start, and at the end of the first lap crashed out and hurt herself. Our teammate Bad Kat and a number of other friends came up to the pit to tell me she was hurt.

My heart sunk.

I ran down the course to find her but could not. I looped back out and she was at the pit with our teammate Sonja. I got there and found her upset, and obviously a little woobly. Sonja, an athlectic training started to tend to her. I was sick. I was ready to pack up and leave, and get her some help.



She told me to be calm, and that she would be okay. I would 100,000 times rather be hurt than see her hurt. Still she insisted that I do my race, Sonja seemed to think that her ribs/shoulder would be okay so I sat on the trainer and warmed up.



I was tight. I was already feeling some self induced pressure for this race. I have been focused on cross all year, and now it was here, time to belly up to the bar. And here the first real race of the season, Monkey crashes out, and that was just burned in my head. I spun on the trainer recessing to my own world of misery.

Suddenly, one my heros, Mike Yozell came up to me and tapped me on the shoulders. He said, " sit up, take a deep breath and remind yourself we do this for fun..." he continued, "you look all balled up..." Mike was beaming, a new father of Issac Edward, and excited to be out for a race. Congratulations buddy, congratulations.



I took his instructions and I felt a bit better. Thanks Mike.


My race went pretty well. I took the hole shot, then rode scared when I needed to be aggressive. I fell back. With 3 to go I found myself in 11th, and kinda going through the motions. Thinking of monkey and just not focused as I needed to be. I told myself to harden the fuck up. I picked off a couple of guys. I looked up and there was one my DCCoD brothers: Jeff Bohnson. I got on his group and we were moving, he looked back and then was gone. He would go on to win.The final two laps I moved into a group wiht Kyle from Bike Lane, and another dude. I tried to attack them, but couldn't get clear so I sat on wheels, and attacked the last section, to lead out and take a small sprint. End result 6th place: my best MAC result ever. I admit I didn't feel too much like celebrating as Monkey gingerly hung out. I didn't tell her, but I thought her season might be over.

Sunday am 4:30 the alarm goes off.


Teammate Zach who spent the night in the Wes Wing, Diane and I load up and head for Baltimore. Our team's race, the second of the MAC series and one of the region's largest races. We started staking the course, and Diane made it clear despite not being able to pick up her bike without pain, that she was going to do this race. I nervously helped her stage, and watched as she and the 40 other cat 3/4 women took off. She started strong. She adapted her bike carrying technique, and she ripped. Diane, despite her injury laid it out there and came up with her best MAC result ever, 7th place. I am so freaking proud.

My race went well. Missed my pedal at the start, got clear with Mayhew, Rob Collins, Jeff, and Mike M. About 3 1/2 laps into a 5 1/2 lap race, Jeff and Scotter are clear. Mike and I get caught by Joe Reynolds, Adam Driscoll, and Ian Mathasis. They go faster, I implode and go from battling for 3rd, to salvaging you guessed it: 7th place. I did my best, I left it all out there, and came away with a strong finish. The top 5 still eludes me, but frankly it was a hell of a weekend. The ride home, after helping my brothers and sisters in black clean up the course, was a joyous one. Monkey and I both had good days, both walked out with 7th places. Monkey is still a little sore, but her ride today had her smiling a cheshire smile.



Epilogue:

> Monkey and I made a pact, since with both got 7th today, our luck is going to be changed now, neither of us is going to crash out of a race for the rest of the year...

> Mayhew spent a good chunk of our race yelling instructions to me. Perhaps this is the newest coaching package, where your coach actually races behind you and shouts for you to attack through the cluster fuck in front of you. When my teammate Zack caught him, he said to Zach, "what are you doing back here with me? get up there and help your teammate!" Mayhew came in a very solid 9th place, nice job coach.

> LWeb took top 10's both days, even scored a UCI point saturday. She is such a bad ass.

> Kelly Cline's last lap surge today can only be called lunitic fringe as he attacked from 26 to 20 place in the elite masters race. That series of final moves that was just amazing to watch. A thing of beauty.

> Props to Kris Auer and Chris Nystrom the mad geniuses behind the Charm City Cross race. Props to all my brothers and sisters in black who showed up before dark to set the course, and hustled all day to make sure the event was flawless. I am so proud to be a part of this team.

good weekend, I'm ready for a good night's sleep for sure.

respect

fatmarc



thanks to Anthony and cyclingcaptured.com for some fine shots...