wicked weekend....

The last weekend in Oct. was crammed with big fun, cyclcross at home, and of course Halloween.

Friday started the weekend off wild with a girls night to the city to see the Blackhawks play! Carla's client set us up right and chauffeured us to the city and showed us the ropes at the United Center and how to cheer like Blackhawks fans do.




Even though they played bad and lost; it was still fun to dance to that song they play and high 5 your neighbors when they score. Lucky for us it was a fairly high scoring game just to keep it interesting. Add to that it being Halloween weekend, and the United Center was full of all kinds of crazy fans dressed up. I am really out shape and de-conditioned for staying up past my bedtime and was bonking fairly early in the night compared to a die hard Blackhawk fan who is superbly trained for this kind of event. Not too much harm done though, because this was just the first leg of my wild and wicked weekend.

Jack's last soccer game of the season was bright and early Saturday morning. We were lucky enough (ha ha) to have the first game of the morning out in the very chilly temps. It was like torture standing in the freezing wind watching 6 and 7 yr olds try to play who hadn't had practice for 2 weeks in the cold early morning and stand around and kind of act like they want to play this make up game that was added on. I think all they were thinking about was how much candy they would get the next day and when they could put on their costume. Later in the day we headed out to venue for Campton Cross to help set up the course. I have to say this is my absolute favorite course on the circuit. Not just because its close to home, but it is the craziest and wildest course because there are actually some hills and a single track section through some woods. FUN! I had gone out there Thurs night with my cyclocross coach, Rob Kelley, to practice starts and he came up with some FUN additions to the course. There is actually a lot of work that goes into setting up 1 of these courses. There are tons of stakes and flags, and taped off sections that go into making 1 crazy loop. The Bicycle Heaven guys did an AWESOME job making a fabulous course and great race. I only helped a little setting up the course. I can't imagine taking it down. Thanks guys!

Sunday of course.....Halloween and cyclocross ! What a fun mix! I pseudo dressed up as Pippy Longstocking with crazy striped tights and braids, but I wanted to be able to race hard and not have a cape or some costume get in the way.




I was so psyched to race this course, and the field was more competitive than the week before. We lined up and again I had a slow start. All the good practice didn't help when I was caught off guard. They didn't start us in the usual way....most the time they give us a warning......but for some reason they didn't this time and the start came fast and I wasn't ready.......but caught 3 or 4 people by the first uphill section. I felt great the entire racing and kept gaining on the girl in front of me each loop. The crazy uphill off camber section that stressed me out in practice went great and I tried to just power up all the uphills and fly through the barriers. I finished 5th and scored some more $$ again. I feel more proud of this probably than the 3rd place last week because of the strength of the field. The winner is phenomenal. I heard she was like 2 minutes off the front??? Seriously? My pippy longstocking leggings came down cause I was pushing so hard and I probably finished with snot coming out of my nose and mouth but was happy with the result and finally am moving up in the series now in a 3 way tie for 7th!!!




Jack had so much fun practicing on the course he decided to race too. He was in costume and even got a call up! He was so excited to race. For his age he would do 2 loops. After lap 1 I thought he was going to be done. He looked soooo tired, but determined. He kept going and did the whole 2nd loop and was so focused that he forgot and started a 3rd lap! I had to run across the field to stop him! Hmmm do you think there is some competitiveness in there from somewhere?



Adam also raced 2 x (ouch)!. This is about as opposite from Ironman training there is...but he did awesome. We all had to hustle home to get ready for the Main Event...trick or treating. We had a Ninja and Camouflage fairy in the house anxious to get out there. (see ....all my training is not just for racing, its for weekends like these!) After trick or treating at threshold levels we finished with way too much candy in the house.

I was not rested and tapered for a weekend like this, I went into it head first with a bit of fatigue but managed to pull off a stellar performance on all events!