East Coast Update
(written by our lone East Coast ‘crosser, Dan Esterling)
GreenSub News Alert: ‘Cross season kicked off several weeks ago for
the East Coast representative of GreenSub. After several months of
lackluster training efforts and terrible eating habits, I began my
season with an 88th place finish (102 finishers, 5 DNFs) in
Baltimore’s Charm City Cross event (Day 1). This event is part of the
Mid Atlantic Cross (MAC) series, where, in my estimation 93 or 94% of
the competitors in CATEGORY C rock the skinsuit/shaved leg combo. Are
you kidding me?!! Too many road riders with too much endurance
sandbagging in Cat C…
In my second event, the “Ed Sanders Memorial Cross” – part of the
MABRA series, I actually felt pretty strong, didn’t crash, and didn’t
feel like I wanted to die at the conclusion of the race. I finished
76th out of 89 finishers. There were a handful of DNF’ers, but now
that I write that out, it is pretty embarrassing to count those people
as part of the small group that I “beat.” Oh, the highlight of the
race was a “sprint finish” between me and another competitor, where I
easily beat him to the line. After the race, he pulls up to me and
says “can’t wait to tell my wife that I had a sprint finish”, to which
I responded – “yeah, but we were sprinting for 101st place.” I was
only 25 spots off I guess. Pretty happy that Lauren was not there to
see that display of “competition.”
Last weekend, I raced on Saturday at the “Breast Cancer Awareness”
‘cross race in Cascade, MD. 2 hour drive, 9 a.m. start time. Ugh. I
felt terrible. No legs. I even did some nice training rides during the
week to augment my usual training program which entails a leisurely
ride to and from work. Also, the place didn’t even have a concession
stand. No fries, no drinks, no nothing. Never going back. In a
slightly smaller field, I finished 36th out of 44. To contradict
myself above, I will mention that there were quite a few DNFs. I don’t
think these were “mechanicals” either – I actually think conditions
were so sloppy that people gave up. So, something to be proud of I
suppose.
Next weekend is the Hyattsville CX Race. I’ve actually been riding a
bit more, and trying to eat a little better. (After all, there is no
Clydesdale category out here). There is also talk that my second
generation GreenSub jersey will be here in time for the Sunday start
time.
-Dan
No way, DNFs totally count in number of racers! They toe-ed the same start line (wheeled the line?) as you did and whatever challenge caused them to DNF, you overcame and that is accomplishment!! (They rode over the root and flatted out. You rode around it and keep air in your tires) Add those DNFs to your “out of” total, man.
Totally. If you start the race and don’t finish it, then you have been “defeated”. Defeated by your competitors, defeated by the race, defeated by life.
Oh I love that you have both justified this. Now that I’ve got to work my way up from the back, at least I can feel like the back is a bit deeper, so to speak. I’ll take 47/65 for my first A race. Yipeee!
The deeper the back, the better. I guess the DNF issue begs the question: If you flat out anywhere on the course, does GreenSub code require you to run out the race, no matter what? I say yes.
I chose DNF earlier this season, as I flatted on the bell lap with no pit support. I would probably choose run in the future.