I had my very first cyclocross race  of the season, and my first cyclocross race ever this week and was NOT disappointed. I can’t wait until the next race.

I started with the Tuesday night series at Aquila Park in Minneapolis. It’s called a ‘training race’. The series is 8 weeks long and they ramp up the difficulty each week. Only one barrier this week, which was good for a newbie like me. They set it up on an uphill. Now the practice I’ve done so far with mounting and dismounting I’ve only done on flat and usually with imaginary barriers. I was stoked though and rode right up to it on my practice lap at speed. My dismount and step over was fine but I got on my bike with absolutely no momentum and then almost fell over. Great wakeup call that I need to do more drills. During the race I ran with my bike up the hill (along with most everyone else), and mounted on the downhill. Definitely need work on getting back on my bike and in the clips, especially on a downhill.

I thought I’d go crazy with so many laps (the course was pretty short), but it didn’t bother me. There were some really fun twisty sections that I kept looking forward to. All in all it was the most fun and painful 45 minutes I’ve had in a long time.

Biggest mistake: neglecting to pack post race beers. Sure won’t do that again!

-Martha