Place to Be

Thanks to BikeIowa for posting this photo on their FB page before the race. How scary am I with a megaphone?

Remember when I used to actually write blog posts? No? It's been so long, that I don't either. But here I go gain....

 Soooo, last weekend was Jingle CX - one of the largest cyclocross races in the country and it's only a few miles from my house. Lucky me. This the first time since 2011 that I haven't been able to sign up tp race it. My migraines have been plaguing me something terrible this Fall. So, I figured, if I woke up and felt okay, I'd race. Sadly, it didn't happen this weekend. Of course, my alternative was to hang-out with my friends, watch races and enjoy the spectacle. I doubt that Argentina will be crying for me anytime soon...

 The first race of the day was the first time ever FAT bike race. Our friend Burne just got his first fat bike a few weeks ago and signed right up. It was great fun and I got to give him his first beer hand-up too. I felt so honored.

The word of the weekend was brutal mud. John loves it, so he was very happy...Even though he doesn't look like it in this photo.

John had a great race (he would say it was okay, but he finished about 13 places higher than predicted) on Friday.

And we had great fun cheering him on. Go John!

After John raced, we ate some awesome veggie burritos with  black beans, sweet potatoes,. rice and kim chee. Yes, Kim chee. It was amazing.

Then it got dark out and the race got even more fun. As you can see, Santa was at his worst.

Friday nights at Jingle Cross is crazy fun. There is a dance party on the hill and the pro women and men race up there, while the rest of drink beer, dance, heckle and cheer. It is one of my favorite nights of the year.

Saturday was another great day. John's cousin's daughter came back from Fort Collins, Colorado and got 3rd place for the Cat 3 women's race. Awesome!

I'm the one on the right in the florescent orange vest over my green jacket. Thanks to Anas El Tuhami for the photo.

 After John raced, John and I took our turns course marshaling. We got there first so, we were able to marshall across from each other and chose to work the busiest area, but we also had a front row "seat" to the finish of the race. Jeremy Powers won it, but it was damn close and that makes for a much more interesting race. Also, I spent about 3 hours dancing and then using my flag to keep people from walking out into the course and getting hit by bicycles and most of the people who went through, thanked me for helping out, and my friends would stop by and chat me up and a guy from the Cliff bar tent came over and asked me if I wanted some free Shot Bloks and I thanked him kindly. A girl can burn a lot of calories dancing around and trying hard to pay attention for 3 hours straight.

 It rained a bit on Sunday morning, making these even muddier...If that was possible. John was hurting on his third day of racing, so he didn't do as well as he had the first two days, but it was a brutally tough course, so I was proud of him for even racing 3 days in a row on it.

The Grinch trying to sway Max into pulling his sled again.

Since we didn't have to marshal on Sunday, we went home after John's race and sadly missed the Speedo race. We made it back by the men's and women's pro races and it was another exciting finish for the pro men's race.

We always clean-up the carnage after the last race is over. So many people volunteer, so it goes pretty quickly. It's just sad to see it all torn-down and most decidedly over for another year.

They are trying to get a bid for the World Cup race to be at Jingle CX next year, which will put in in September, and that will make it even BIGGER, but we won't know until January. Fingers CX'ed.

So it was that we bade adieu to our favorite CX race of the year, in hopes that will be even better next year...If that's even possible.