A Race

Did my first A race today. Went pretty well. Lets put some perspective around what pretty well means. I stayed on the same lap as the winner. I was probably the third last guy on the same lap, but I was on the same lap. Coming from B I did not have big expectations knowing that you can think that you are a stud riding near or on the front of B, but A is a different world in Cross.
I got the bad call up given that I have no a points. It was not all bad given that it was not a huge field. Weather today was shit! It was raining like crazy. I long ago stopped worrying about the weather. It is what it is and to be good in cross you have to be good in the wet. Whistle goes and we are off. I get a pretty good start, but I end up giving up some spots because the starts are so much faster. Actually not so much faster, but faster longer than I am used to. Today's course was fun, but it lacks elements. It had one set of planks and not much else. Don't get me wrong it was fast swoopy and fun, but it was not a pure cross course.
Back to the race. Basically I settled into a pace I thought that I could maintain with a goal of not blowing. It worked. I did not fully bury myself. If I popped I would be dead. I struggled in the first 2 laps. From about lap 4-10 I rode a strong race. I actually squeezed my brake so hard coming into on corner too hot that my brake straddle slipped leaving me with limited front brake. This was a good thing. Cross is not about who is the strongest ( I prove that weekly ) but who uses their energy the most efficiently. That is more of what I was doing. Working the slick corners better and better every lap. Trying not to go in too fast and coming out accelerating. I was good through the barriers, the only place that you had to run. I hopped on of the barriers on my last lap because the second barrier had been snapped in half due to a crash. Well, the hop was not pretty. Basically after I hopped it someone said "nice save" Jpow has nothing to worry about.
I would guess that I finished 18 of 24? Not sure for sure, but will find out when they are posted. There 3 guys within 10 secs and a lot within a minute. Having said that the winner probably put 3.5-4 minutes into me.
I have to mention one thing. I have been racing in one form or another for 15 years. Mostly as an expert, master expert 3 on the road. I have probably done 4 serious years of cross. Not sure that I should be racing A as I have never in my life raced as and elite or A. Why? Well, simple not good enough in the past. 37 years old with a career, wife and daughter ( one more on the way ) may seem like a strange time to jump into the fold, but I feel good about the way it went. I race casue I love to pin a number on and try to improve. Small victories I guess. I am hoping that next weeks race has more cross feel to because I feel that I can do better than just a pure drag race like this week.
Big thanks to Brad for racing A with me today. He has the start of starts. He was 6th after the first lap. Damn! He has the bad knee and pulled the pin after 45 minutes using it as training. He can race A, just needs to sort out some body issues and he will be killing it. His GF is doing a UCI race in Edmonton tomorrow, good luck Kelly!