Double-header Cross Weekend: Oh, the Pain!
The best thing about competition, in the world of cross, is that two very dedicated race promotional groups work extra hard to produce some outstanding cross events for us to enjoy. For those of you that race cross you know our enjoyment is somewhat painful depending on the courses. This weekend, we got to enjoy two outstanding courses from two great race promoters.
The first race on Saturday was MFG’s King County Cross. As a result of the City of Seattle’s last minute cancellation of MFG’s permit for the planned Lincoln Park Cross, MFG scrambled hard to work with King County Parks and Highline School District to produce this race. The race venue was Lakewood Park and Evergreen High School. Evergreen HS is home to Seattle Cyclocross’s kick-off event and if you race cross you’re very familiar with this venue. Lakewood Park on the other hand is new to cross. It is a large open space park just north of the high school. MFG used some of the familiar high school elements and added some new lines in the Park to produce a fast, twisty, hilly course with lots of off-cambers, short rideable hills and the steep run-ups making for some serious fun. Click
here for my Garmin result so you can view the course.
They started us on the HS track heading south towards the finish line. The first turn after the start made things very interesting due to the slick asphalt. Chris L. had a very interesting slide across it but managed to stay upright, unlike the middle of the pack in front of me. After passing the finish line in the HS field, they turned us north and into Lakewood Park. In the Park, they took us to the northwest corner over rolling grass pathways where we turned to the east to start climbing and running over barriers and run-ups. After completing the last major run-up, they brought us back downhill and back into the high school via a sharp downhill chute. Once back at the high school, they throw-in all the familiar off-cambers and sharp rideable hills before taking back around the track to the start.
For team TAI, we only had a handful of us racing. In the 9:30 am race, Bob McGee, Chris Liebsch, and I entered the Masters 35+ Cat 4 race. After a great start for Chris and Bob and my avoidance of the major crash at the start, Bob finished 5th, Chris L finished 12th, and I finished 24th out of 50 starters. Jenn Sinclair raced at this event in the Cat 3 womens race and finished 6th out of 14 racers for a great result. MFG has one more race on November 15th at Woodland Park. Hopefully Seattle Parks won’t cancel the permit for this one as well.
The second race this weekend was produced by Seattle Cyclocross at another new venue in their series. They have done a great job of finding replacements for lost traditional venues like Donida Farms and Kelly Creek. They also found some of that sweet southend mud! Today, it was Marris Farms near Bonney Lake and Buckley. Some may be aware of this site as the home of a great Halloween Festival including lots of pumpkins, an intricate corn maze, and the ever famous haunted forest. The SCX course designers had a field day with the Halloween leftovers throughout the farm. They produced a rough and tough course consisting of lots of mud, rocks, bumpy fields, a corn maze run, and many thick muddy hills.
Here is my Garmin reading to see how the course fit on the property.
They started us right on the rip-rap gavel service road in the middle of the property. It was a hard uphill start, heading up the road towards the farm buildings. At the top of the hill, they turned us south passing the finish line and heading for pumpkin land. Pumpkin land consisted of long runs down, up, and back in the muddy fields holding all the pumpkins. No yellow tape necessary here, they just lined up the pumpkins to mark the course. Someone’s back has to be very sore tonight. In the first run, at the bottom, the mud-pit provided a great way of slowing us down fast.
After getting past the mud-pit, the rest of pumpkin land was relatively rideable yet very muddy and bumpy. Next, bring on the corn maze! This was a fun set of blind muddy turns with the occasional corn stalk in the middle of the pathway. Upon exiting the corn maze they took us across the grassy fields with two nice run-ups on the north-end. The grass fields were also full of nice downhill muddy off-camber turns and more sharp steep small hills. Finally, it was a tight 180 degree left turn back onto the service road and the starting line.
For team TAI, we had a number of folks riding throughout the day. I wrote down the following results as they were posted at the event. In the morning Masters Cat 4 races, the 35+ race had Bob McGee and Chris Liebsch and Francisco Pons following right behind in the 45+ race. In the first one, Chris L finished 32nd (7:41 avg lap) holding off Bob M who finished next in 33rd (7:43 avg lap). For Francisco in the 45+ race, he finished 13th (7:37 avg lap). In the Juniors 10-12 2-lap race, Daniel McGee finished 18th. In the afternoon racing, Matt Lynch and Jim Albright represented us in the Masters 1/2 35+ race (60 minutes of pure fun) with Matt L finishing 4th (6:56 avg lap) and Jim took 7th (7:04 avg lap). Finally, I raced in the last race of the day, Cat 4 finishing 29th (8:42 avg lap) out of 36 finishers. Note, the Maris Course was lengthened after 10:10 Race. The lap times of first two races reflect a shorter lap.
Next week, SCX stays in the southend of the Puget Sound at Sprinker in Spanaway. Hope to see you out at the races. Have a great week of training.
Corn maze photo of Jim and Terry compliments of Laurie O'Brien. Matt's photo was taken by Joe Martin.
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