Ouch! Addendum w/race results!

the results of two days of ridin'n'racin' y'all!
did my first 'cross race for the '08 season today. it was painful; and, i barely made my stage time. the race marshall said that there was some more parking up front and it took me another 10 mins to find a spot and time was running out for me to same day register before my event started. made it with two minutes to spare after i hauled butt changing in the parking lot-hopefully not a whole lot of people saw my cantaloupes-and pinning my number on the left hand side.
the placement of obstacles were downright cruel. they placed it right before a majorly steep climb, on the the apex of a downhill sweeper, during a major, speed-blasting straightaway, and lastly, at a 90° lefthander before a 15% percent speed bump. cruel i tell you.
so with no warm up i stage and they begin the countdown w/two minutes to go. i spy the pack and i see two of my teammates. they actually have 'cross bikes, whereas i'm on my mountain bike. i was on row 8 with at least 6 people per row. big field this 35+. thank god it was more of a mountain bike course. i screamed on the downhills and caught one or two each lap. but where the mountain bike became onerous was on the barriers and the long-ish climb. that's where i got passed. if you've never done a 'cross race, it's like a time trial on a mountain bike cross country course. it's how long can you sustain the lactic acid building in your system for 45 mins to an hour? yup. 45 mins of l.t. and a(naerobic) t. i think i was the second mountain biker to finish out of the four of us. the first placer mountain biker was drilling it off the get go.
i knew i wasn't last because during one exquisitely painful part of this serpentine course you can see the line of people behind you. one bike racer dude i passed said, "you have suspension." i wanted to say, "and you sir, have the knack for stating the obvious." i didn't though. it's supposed to be friendly, so as i rode away from him i yelled back, "it ain't the fork, it's steroids!"
the laps were long too. we had only five laps; but boy they seemed long. it's like doing a 1-2-3 criterium. they're only an hour long so after dying in the pack and seeming like we've ridden 50 mins, you look down at your watch and you've only ridden 15. ouch.
my college bud and general homeboy charles the 3rd was there. back in the day, charles was a uscf cat II racer and during stage races we entered he'd put a couple of minutes in on me if the tt distance was long enough. nowadays he's just like me, a working class stiff at least doing something he enjoys-like me as a teacher. he owns a bianchi carbon rig and competes as a tri-geek/loser (sorry triathletes). i didn't stick around for the results. i'll wait 'til they post it in a couple of days from now on the american cycling association website. if you get there before i do, i'm number 770. we went for a 2 hour recovery ride after that ordeal. again, another beautiful day here in colorado. picked up the moose and we hung out at our house in the hills. when we came home, i walked our warring dogs and apparently the dog whisperer's techniques are starting pay off. i can now walk 'em together with only one of 'em being leashed. after a long walk, i read a book to mason and had to run upstairs to put some stuff away and here he is chillin' with a book on the couch.did i tell you the homey trinity is going to moab on the 4th of october? ooohh-weee can't wait for that! doing these 'cross races'll hopefully give me some kind of fitness (albeit for only 45 or so minutes) for our subtle testosterone-fest.
addendum well kids, this is what happens when you stop riding for about a month and start racing cyclocross on an anvil called a mountain bike for grins and giggles. 43rd out 65 contestants. not last, but not even in the middle...