I Would Teach My Feet to Fly

 So, this week's race report is brought to you by menopausal migraines. Everyone's favorite...Or not. That migraine I got the weekend before, never really let-up. It got better enough to be a dull pain, and it got worse a couple of times and I had to actually take my meds to be functional, but man is it draining to be in constant pain for that long. I know...Wah, wah, wah.

 I love going to Des Moines races, because there are actually women my age there and they usually have a masters category for women, which can be very, very rare. It's nice to talk to women my age, who are also going through THE CHANGE and can commiserate with me when I say, "With all these hormone fluctuations, I have no idea who is going to show up for my races on any given weekend" or "With hot flashes, being menopausal during the Winter in Iowa is almost tolerable"...

 Anyway, last Saturday's race taught me many lessons. #1. No matter how hungry you think you are, do NOT eat quiche two hours before your race. #2. Now that I'm a little more comfortable with cyclocross in general, I don't need to continually ride and reride the course all day long before my race...ESPECIALLY if it is a muddy course that I spend much time slogging or "running" through. I am too old to recover from that before my race. #3. Don't do a really hard double work-out 2 days before my race. See the part in number 2 where I say I'm too old to recover from that. #4. Set up a trainer and spin on it a little before the race. I start out way too slowly and by the time I get warmed-up, it's too late and all the fast girls are getting ready to lap me. Most importantly, I need to stop being almost 50 years old, it's really not helping my results at all.

 That having been said, I raced the 45+ women's race. There were only 3 women in my race and I finished solidly in the middle. I am okay with that. Of course, I was still behind the last girl in the open race, so the next time they don't have a master's category, I might be watching all of the other racer's behinds...Still not a bad thing. Mostly, my results don't matter. Sure, I will keep trying to get better and faster, but I love to race CX no matter what my results are and I love the people I meet at the races; What else am I going to do? Sit around and watch TV all day on the weekends? Probably not.

It's nice when everyone in my race makes the podium.