Flagler fun!

This past weekend I traveled to Fort Flagler on the Olympic Peninsula for an infamous cross double-header. Ferry traffic proved a little challenging Friday afternoon so I didn't roll in until well after I had planned. I checked into the army barracks with a few teammates and then we spent the night trying to catch some sleep while howling winds threatened to flatten our building. Lack of sleep and a bit of burnout drove me to skip Saturday's race, so I helped with registration and became a cheerleader for the day.

Gorgeous weather and an entertaining sand pit on Saturday's course turned out to be a spectator's dream. Tons of people lined the sandpit screaming, yelling, and ringing cowbells at the bicycles and bodies flipping through the air. If someone rode the length of the sandpit they definitely got the crowd's admiration. I've never seen so many spectacular crashes in a cross race before!

At the end of the day we headed to the fort's mess hall for a lasagna feed complete with a free supply of Fat Tire and a showing of Evan Schmitt's cycling documentary One. Kudos to the race organizers! The ample supply of beer gave me a great excuse to carbo load. So many teammates gave me shit for not racing Saturday that I had to commit to racing Sunday and did some fine preparation. My teammate Rick isn't a Fat Tire fan, so I had to drink both my beer and his. Then I tried a bottle of the ale we bought in town. Then Dane encouraged my Sunday race preparation by handing me another Fat Tire. Who am I to disagree with a race official?

After too many beers I headed back to the barracks around 9:15 and noisily crawled into my sleeping bag in pitch darkness while everyone else slept soundly. Slacker! The only good thing about drinking that many beers is that I slept really well despite a few racers doing naked cyclocross practice through the barracks at midnight. The funny thing is that no one in my building said a word or even muttered, "What the f***?" Everyone was too busy trying to get back to sleep - haha!

I woke up in surprisingly good shape Sunday given the previous night's beerfest, worked registration for a bit, then lined up for my 9:30 race. The course was mostly flat but used old army bunkers to create some short, steep run-ups and a quick gravity-defying downhill. We even got to ride through a concrete tunnel that was part of the bunkers. Very cool! The wind proved challenging but wasn't nearly as bad for our race as it was later in the day.

On the first runup I lost my traction and face-planted right into the hill. Luckily, it was so steep that I didn't have far to fall. When I remounted my bike I felt my seat fall and quickly realized I was about 3-4" lower than I should be. Despite the mechanical, I did manage to pass a handful of gals, barely escape getting lapped by the guys, and finish the race. Never did it occur to me to go to the pits and get my seat fixed. The low seat definitely explained my lack of power, sore quads, and wrecked knees. A friend joked that it looked like I was riding a kid's bike. Thanks!

After my race I cheered on my friends and teammates still racing. As the day wore on the wind got stronger and how anyone stayed upright in 30-40mph wind gusts is beyond me.

Zoka had a great showing at Flagler and snagged some top finishes. Everyone had a great time and enjoyed the interesting courses. Despite the mechanical I had fun and Sunday's race was just what I needed to get re-motivated to finish the rest of the cross season. I think I just needed a week or two off the bike to put things into perspective.

Today I'm taking stock of my multiple bruises, mostly from bad cyclocross form. I have a massive bruise on my butt, probably from the pedals nailing me when I face-planted. Nice job. I also bruised the hell out of my shoulder roughly throwing my bike around because I was too lazy to softly place it higher up on my shoulder. I think the shortness of the runups lead to a little botched technique on my part.

Unfortunately my camera battery died early on Saturday so I only snapped a few pics of Saturday's races. I'll upload some funny video of the sand pits shortly...