Knoxiecross #2

Knoxiecross Race 2

Those are twos, not peace signs.

Notice I am sporting the post-race mohawk which can only be cultivated with the perfect mixture of sweat and left over hair product.

I had so much fun at this race. Saturday's turnout was the largest field ever at a Knoxiecross race with about 75 people racing and tons of spectators. The day started out chilly and windy, but it was quite pleasant by the time I got out on the course. Speaking of the course, I know that many of you have spent a good bit of time running at Victor Ashe Park, which was where this installment of Knoxiecross took place.

Back in my competitive running days, I would allow myself to run 1 lap at the park, and then I would sneak by coach and hit the roads. I always seemed to find the holes and uneven spots after I got a little tired and sloppy. Dare I say that the holes and uneven spots are actually worse on a bike?? Yes, I do dare. That was one bumpy course, fast though...fast and bumpy.

I busted out the single speed again(I think I'm hooked) and managed a 4th place finish in the biggest women's field to date. Good job racers!

(Please note that our race is run with the men's CX4 and juniors. The people in the picture(except for me) are not women.)

Two parents plus five kids all with bikes. This is how the Whittaker family rolls.


Next race is on February 9th at Melton Hill Park. Yeah, two miles from my house!!!

'cross results

I had originally planned on racing at just Knoxiecross last weekend, but I was talked into roadtripping to Nashville for the TN state cyclocross championships which was on Sunday.


There was lots of suffering. Why, you ask??

CYCLOCROSS....SINGLE SPEED STYLE!!!!


I tell ya, I am a glutton for
punishment.












First up on Saturday - Knoxiecross
Knoxiecross is kinda weird because they make all the women race in one category, so I got my ass handed to me by some pro mountain bikers. Riding two days a week just don't cut it against those folks. It was a really nice day for racing though, the weather was awesome - I didn't even need knee warmers! (I hate knee warmers, they always fall off me) The course was laid out nicely with a nice muddy pit right before a run up some stairs. Good lord, my shoes were full of mud. There were no barriers though, and I thank the course designer for that. At the end of the day, I wound up in 5th place.

Next up on Sunday - State CX Championship
I didn't plan on racing this. It's in Nashville, and I was perfectly content to let all the other crazies drive out there and race two days in a row. I guess plans change. I was talked into piling in the Suburban with Susi, Kim, and Jeremy and going down to Nashville on Saturday night. So we get to the hotel (Best Western...nice) unload all of our crap and stuff ourselves into the hotel room around 9 o'clock. We basically spent the night watching the Weather Channel and checking the internet to see if it is going to rain before, during, and after our races.



Fast forward to the race - this was a crazy course. I bet there was 10 miles of yellow caution tape going through the park. The course was 2.1 miles long and consisted of a mud pit, a sand pit, two natural barriers, a run up, and a set of man made barriers. Owwwwwwwwww. Pain, lots and lots of pain. I did a good bit of running instead of riding since I only had one gear and all. But, the good thing is, by the 3rd lap I had caught the leader! We went back and forth for the whole lap. I would catch her on the technical sections and she would pull away on the road sections - ahh, single speed! She pulled away pretty good on the last road section before the finish, so she won the race despite my best efforts.

I know there are some pretty good pictures of the races floating around, so when/if I get my hands on them, I'll be sure to post 'em. Oh, as for my fellow road trippers - Jeremy was third in CX3, Kim was 3rd in the same race I was in, and I can't remember what place Susi got, but she didn't fall in the mud.

Knoxiecross

Oh my goodness, I'm on a roll!

Knoxiecross info

When:
Saturday, January 12th

Race start times
10:30am - CX1, CX2 (1 hour)
11:45 - CX3 (45 min)
12:45 - CX4 (30 min)
12:46 - WCX (30 min) <---my race

Where:
Morningside Park
1600 Dandridge Ave

View Larger Map

The race course should be good and muddy from all this rain we've had the last couple of days, so come on out and watch the suffering.

looky here.

TA-DA!! I found a house!!

This is actually the house that I mentioned in the previous post and it looked like the sellers weren't going to budge much on the listing price. It turns out that the house they were planning on moving into in a couple of weeks wasn't going to be finished on time, and since I am flexible with the closing date, they decided to drop the price just for me. :)

The closing date is on March 10th so I have a few more weeks of bumming off my mom before I have to be responsible again.

If you want to check out more pictures and see where it's located, click here.

I'm Alive!

Happy New Year!! I know it's a week late, but what do you expect? I haven't even looked at this thing since Augustish, so I have actually surprised myself by posting at all. I could say that my New Year's resolution is to keep my blog updated more often, but I'm not big on resolutions, so just hope for the best :)

quick run down of things since I last posted:
job...good
house hunt - i tried real hard to buy a house a couple of weeks ago, but the price wasn't right so the search continues
all other aspects of my life...can't complain

Back in November and December I tried my hand at cyclocross and competed in the msgcross series up in Bristol and Johnson City. Intensity wise, it's a lot like cross country, but throw in some stuff to jump over just for kicks. The series here in Knoxville starts up on Saturday, so it will be great not having to drive two hours to race for 30 minutes. Hopefully, I'll get some pictures on here after the race.

And lastly, Go LSU!! (sorry Mo)