Photo by Scott Thigpen – at the beginning of the race approaching the stairs. The terror is visible in my eyes.

Sloss Furnaces is an amazingly picturesque historic site with roots going back to the founding of Birmingham. We are very lucky to be able to race there during our cyclocross series; I think it’s my favorite venue! Although I’m not doing at all well this year, I upped my category to the Women’s 1/2/3 for this race because of our series rules. I like to tell myself that getting top 10 in 1/2/3s is something to brag about, even if it was 9th out of 9. Le sigh.

Mary Lou Davis, along with Kim Cross as the racer, created a brilliant video of the Sloss race that highlights both the beauty of the venue and the awesomeness that is cyclocross in Alabama. The race footage is from the race I was in, but I was so far behind Kim that I’m nowhere to be seen. Imagine me struggling somewhere in there if you so wish.

Sam went first since he was racing before me, but his verdict post embro was that he couldn’t really feel anything. When it was my turn, I noticed first of all that it smells and looks like pumpkin pie filing.  That was nice.  I wasn’t really sure how to use it, so I rubbed it on my legs in three thin layers.  It was about 30 minutes before I felt a bit of a tingling, but not really in a good way.  I was warned that it did not react well to razor burn, and although I had not shaved my legs in about two days, I think it still reacted a little bit with my recently shorn follicles.  It was unpleasant and I sort of hopped back and forth on my feet for a while being sad and looking stupid.

Is this a good photo, or what?! This guy was like a machine

Sam decided to reapply and came back saying that he could feel a little bit of warmth but didn’t seem to be too impressed.  He and Alan raced, and Sam completely dominated – he finished ahead of the pack by like a minute.  It was insane!

Ok this picture is from a different race, but ya know, he was just as happy this time around

Once it was time for me to race, I took a deep breath and rode/ran/stumbled through all of the mud and water – which was over the knee at places.  I don’t really know what embrocation is supposed to be like in this particular situation, but I think I was so cold and wet that it didn’t make much of a different whether I had embrocated or not – I was just numb.  Finished 2nd, hoorah! I was happy.

Honestly, everyone was pretty happy

After the race I could feel a little bit of tingle on my upper thighs but nothing much to mention.

Then I got home and took a nice hot shower.  HOLY HELL.  SERIOUS PAIN. MY THIGHS WERE ON FIRE. It was like taking a hot shower with a sun burn.  My hands hurt too, but the cream must have washed off my lower legs during the race because they were fine.  I was sad again.

So in the end I don’t really know what to say.  Obviously, I didn’t know what I was doing or what to expect.  There was no instruction manual on how to apply the cream and I didn’t read anything about it ahead of time, which was dumb.  I think it might be nice in another situation, but for this particular event it was not a raging success.

Sam said he would like to try the more intense varieties – we had mellow at our disposal, but it is also made in medium and madness. Who knows?! MAD ALCHEMY – SEND US MORE!!!

Wahoo!

Alan Barton took these photos, and aren’t they lovely?  To see the full set, go here.

From here on out I think that Fall will forever be knows instead as Cross Season.  Today I spent a sunny day drinking beer, hanging out and watching CYCLOCROSS! at Sloss Furnace.  Sloss is the only publicly held industrial site in the world, as well as a killer spot for a cross race.   I, unlike Anna, was not racing so I came out ready to take in all the glory that is a bike race. Glorious it was.

Bici Coop team did very well, with Sam (took 2nd!), Alan (flatted out 2nd lap and had to run it in), Jesse Heath, Heath, Aaron Lane and Sean Malone in the mens 4-5 class and Anna (got 4th, maybe 3rd…jury is still out!) for the ladies.

The course wasn’t too muddy but had it’s share of gravel, hills, switchbacks and obstacles.  The site of bikes kicking up dirt in front of the huge foundry was beautiful.  Add beer and some good friends and I had a Sunday to write home about.  Oh and lots of bloody knees and elbow.  I am weird, sue me.

Anna will be writing about her experiences during her first cross race in Part 2.  Thanks to everyone at Bamacross for putting this together.  Besides the beer situation (Blackwell‘s I am looking at you for your no show!), everything seemed to go off without a hitch.

How was your weekend?

Elisa and I are sorely tempted to race next year, but I think I might be too much of a wimp.  I hear it’s real hard.

Paul is doing a fantastic job of documenting his cyclocross adventures in the Portland area over at Pacific Pedaling. 

To see what’s happing in the Birmingham area, check out BamaCross.

Here’s some pics of our bois…

Sam won!

Jesse broke his bike!

Alan rocked the sand pit!

Anyone else partaking in Cyclocross fun this year?