Choose Life

I finally had a decent CycloCross race this morning. I finished third in my race which was cat. 4 and cat. 4 masters 35+. Technically I won the cat. 4 but since 2 guys crossed the line 6 seconds ahead of me I still came away feeling like I could have won outright and that I should have done better, worked harder and had more confidence. Of course its somewhat moot because there is cat. 3 and then Pro 1 -2, another 2 divisions higher than mine. With that said I am happy. I've been saying all year that my starts have been the reason for my not doing well so I made sure to register early for this race. I was placed on the third line out of about 7 lines so my position was great. I kind of squeezed into the second line right before the gun.  It was an uphill start which suited me and by the sharp turn I was in about 20th and feeling really comfortable. This course suited me because it had a lot of good riding and one section of beach running. After the first run I passed 5 guys and came into the middle of the course in about 12th. I slowly picked people off the rest of the way and ran out of track to catch the first 2. I don't mean to belittle the riders in front of me but I do think one more run on the beach and I would have got the lead. I'm pleased and looking forward to doing the cat. 3 races soon.

There is another race tomorrow but I can't do it because we are sponsoring the Downtown Jingle 5k so I'll be working that in the morning. However, if time permits I will head down to Goddard in the afternoon to watch the pro race and watch in awe at how easy they ride the course. Its interesting to find a new sport and I keep drawing parallels to running. My winning a cat. 4 race is basically like winning the JV race at college xc or running 18 minutes for 5K on the road and yet I am strangely happy. I will never be as good at cycling as I was at running so I need to reset my expectations and just enjoy it. Easier said then done but I'll try.

The duo Memoryhouse, out of Guelph, Ont. make wonderful music. They layer minimal drums, synths, and reverb under magical shoegaze vocals. I put their track To The Lighthouse on the blog here a year ago. I never really followed up because I wasn't really listening to much shoegaze sounds but this song is beautiful and I wanted to share it with my friends on the internets. Its a B-Side to their new single Caregiver. Enjoy,

Love Kel