Race report: Lake Sammamish cyclocross race #1

I did a couple cyclocross races two years ago and then fell out of practice (too busy, too many excuses).  This year I decided to try to tackle as many as possible in the season, and today was day 1.  For those who don't know, cyclocross is a crazy fun bike race where you ride on dirt trails (sometimes pavement), go over stairs, hurdles, and more (today beach).  I did the beginning women's race this morning and the boys did the kids race.  All in, awesome. 

The race today was at Lake Sammamish right on the beach.  For the adults course (mine) we did laps starting on pavement, then onto the beach 3 times, up a stair, over many many tree roots and through the dirt and mud, then going again. 

The beginning women's race was funny because it started with kids 7 and up ... which meant I was literally racing the boys' classmates.  The race started in waves with the mid-aged kids, then the beginners like me, then younger kids.  Some of the 10s to teens were amazingly good (like whipping by me  and shouting "good job." 

After my race I found the boys who had been warming up around in the field.  We got them lined up for the kids race and they hauled.  The kids race even had a hurdle which was hilarious (Wilson went over backwards, Cole was good at sprinting over it, some kids stopped completely).  At the end of the race the boys were ready for more wanting 1) new bikes, and 2) to be in the big kid/grown up race. 

 Also post race, Wilson found one of his classmates, Fiona, who is his "girlfriend."  Literally, Wilson calls her his GF, she calls him her BF, and her parents introduced themselves talking about how much Fiona talks about Wilson (the banter is mutual).  All of the kids played on a playground in the middle of the course for a good hour before starting to get grouchy at which point we piled them asap into cars to head home.

All in, an awesome day.  I'm ready to go again!