Last Race Before Baby
Andy has wanted to get in a few more races before Baby Lily shows up (and before the weather gets bad.) He decided to do a Cyclocross race located in Eugene (at Camp Harlow) last night. The race started at 6:45. I promptly picked Andy up from work at 5:00. We got home, got the car packed up (food, bike, gear, etc) and hit the road. Due to some shotty directions, we arrived at the race location at 6:38pm! Andy ran up to get registered and had no more than 2 minutes to warm up.
Cyclocross is a combination bike race / obstacle course. The race was on a 1.25 mile loop and lasted 45 minutes. Complete the most laps in 45 minutes and you win! I watched the guys go round and round: up steep hills (that 60% of racers had to run up), jumping with their bikes over logs, running with their bikes through sand traps, riding through technical turns and switchbacks. Most people have fancy “cyclocross bikes.” Andy just used his mountain bike, which seemed to work fine but might have put him at slight disadvantage, who knows.
It got dark very quickly! My camera was also running out of batteries. I had to quickly turn it on when I saw Andy coming, snap a picture, and turn it back off. Some pictures are blurry (due to almost no available light!) Pictures below:
Here is Andy navigating a turn:
Andy just rode up the steepest part (which you cannot see.) As I said, most riders had to run up this part because it was too steep for them to handle… Not Andy!
Andy just finished hurdling over a log and was about to enter the sand trap:
And, the finish:
