Boulevard Cup

Boulevard Cup is great. It seems to me that it's become a marquee race on the KC calendar and the field for the men's open (22, largest of the year) reflected this.

Two years ago at this same race, different venue, I had perhaps my most exciting cross race ever. Bob C won the 3's but James S and I battled it out for 2nd. I led out the sprint but he came around and beat me. Still, the crowd was great, the course was great, the racing was great, ill never forget that day. For most of us, days like that make it all worth while. 

Anyway...

Did a pretty good job of warming up and scouting the course and lined up on the second row. It was a wide pavement start so there were only 2 rows. (ps, I love pavement starts so please include them whenever you can.) 

They said go and I had my best start of the year. It was up a gradual incline, perfect for me. So fun. Maybe too much fun because after bogging down in the first sand section (which included a sweet hipster dismount, aka swing the leg over the handlebars) i was breathing very hard and getting passed by a small army. 

It was totally worth it but I started a little to aggressively and it took a few laps to recover. 

One more dude passed me mid race and later Issac broke his chain plus and I did chase down Lane (he might of been having bike issues as well) but besides that I was on my own a lot.

I only attempted to ride the sand twice, never making it. That disappoints me but lately I feel fragile. My body is breaking down. All cycling and no other exercise makes Adam a frail boy. I'm worried about dismounting awkwardly and tweaking something. Didn't help that the previous days race destroyed my back. Having said all that, I felt great running, the best I've felt all season, so I ran all the sand. Afterwards X said it was way faster to ride it. I believe her. She was a great cheerleader out there.

Ended up 16th of 20 finishers. I felt good but It's just so f'ing hard to race with these guys. I like it but probably need to get a lot smarter with my training if I ever want to take a big step forward.

In the meantime i need to do some core work, I'm falling apart. But... Fu*k it, cross is awesome and I can't wait to line up again. 

And how about the gal spectator on course with her own private stereo offering hand ups of Tylenol, beer, and boot legged copies of windows xp?!?! Now that's what talking about. Makes me long for the good old days of Colavita Lovin. 

After all the races were done we hung around drinking what had become free beer... until they cut us off, love this town.